jAkbofU’d 

J^r 

Wbnderland 








Book 




COF^GHT DEPOSIT. 



V£^ 







ALL ABOARD 
FOR WONDERLAND 




- r ‘ 



.■•/ * VM 






%^! 


*S' 


T. 

k.ij\ n *.•*' V' * I 

-V *0* '.■ , 


*' f v ^ 

K V- ''' ^^< ':'^|;' •'‘'"rvi - } r 

* v-y ' *' ' r 

* ' '•' ^ *' ^ 1-0^'^ 

-i • \ 


« 


m§ 


* f 


I » ^ : 



i^' 








’ A '^' ^ , * * 


'\ v? 





.• vi-v - ' 

V. ' 


^T> j. ^■ • - 

. '■' 1 . • ; ' , _ <>1(1 






$ p 


• / 




. 4 


‘I 



'i: 


<'* r 


4 


/ • 


I' T .? ii-.v .. ’ »V ■ fivViXui'-^ ^ 

r !• 7 U J I ' * '* '■ ’ ■; ‘ « l-iMv 

■ ‘It: '',-*r’ '■ ■ , ' v': ' ■•’ ' 

a vA' • k r ,'*•*• *^ * .MW I 


- ^ :ri 


, t ^ / . 


' . 'ft 


4.\ 

t 


*j/ '^': 5ri^';*v’ • ’ *' 




‘v r*- SCt ^ i ^ ‘ 

:' V ■ *‘'#1- ■ 


W ! 


f/k;-' 


•i: ri Lf • ' 


«r* V "•'■}•; 

■PT* ^ . / /. ^ • 




• j ' i! / . .' 


y 


r^'iXiL 


» . V . " ■ ■-> * ■ 

• * • . 




: ;’. ;.,' 7 '. ■’. 4 '; „ \ a? 

' V '■ ' i ‘ •: • j 


rc; 

Mr' 1 l 


' ^ 




I • * 



J’ ' ^ " » ' •' 


j; 


'^,'1 ». 

i * \ 


. - f ; 


; .. 


^'i.. ' y 

^ % • w 


"1 




* » 


. « 


/■yr^ 


N ‘ 


r 

( 

V 



■'''4 


^ . 


i Li® i- ■'f ' i.- 


A* ' " • ' I* 'JT - J 2*' ^ 

^BmoIh * • ^*i t • ■ L» ' ^ s ^4 ■ it . 

SISP“ ,, ., .r J; •';/“ urd^ 




‘>it 





With the Bears at the North Pole 




ALL ABOARD 
FOR WONDERLAND 


BY 

HELEN OVINGTON KINGSBURY 

»< 


ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR AND IN 
BLACK AND WHITE 
BY 

GERTRUDE ALICE KAY 




NEW YORK 

MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
1917 


t 






Copyright, 1917, by 
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 


Published September, 1917 


OCT 10 1917 


©GI.A476529 


\ 




i 

i* « 


TEDDY AND BETTY 


•f 


♦ 


4 

tr ■ 





CONTENTS 


OHAFTEB PAGE 

I Off for New York 1 

II A Window in Toyland 11 

III The Inside Track 18 

IV VocALio . 22 

V The Reading Room 29 

VI The Magic Restaurant 38 

VII The Barber Shop 38 

VIII All Ashore for the Elephant Isle .... 44* 

IX On the Way to the Palace 47 

X In the Palace of the Maharajah .... 52 

XI The Crocodile Pool 70 

XII A Mouse Gives an Engineering Lesson ... 78 

XIII A New Pied Piper 91 

XIV Into the Sugar Bowl . 96 

XV Griselda 112 

XVI Money to Burn 120 

XVII The Inside Track Again 133 

XVIII Ready for the North Pole 140 

XIX Snow and Hail 14-2 

XX The Ice Cart Cottage . . ... . . . .147 

XXI A White Santa Claus . . .. . . . . .162 

XXII Good-by to Wonderland 184 










vL 


|L 




"■i: - -"■,■■' 

."' , V' '•’■■’.• • 9 A 


> 


k r ,• . « I 




' • ) 




V. 


)* iV :;.:'' 


* * 


■^•i V '■ ‘ 


« •' 


J. 


\*4 






\ « 




I 


• ' • 
Wt-' - ' • 

% ^ j>V. * I • * > * 




> ; 


»S', 




i« 





V0U/ 


r» 


V . 




>‘v 


« I ‘ 




rt . Va ' f ' V ’-'- X ' i ' i ' 


'•''€8 




« > 




>r \ 


■ i> 


4 I 


s. ti. 


i/ 










4 > 




•> » / ’ 


I »' 


f'm 



4 ■* 


f. 


f » J. 


't r 



.'rT 


.r 


■- 1 


.* 


A*. 


I t 







r ** 1 * 


t; 


»f 


✓ ^ 


• ^ 


\* '• 


• • 


f ‘ 



< ^ 


v 


. » f> Cvir 

- '• ■ . ‘‘.f !' 




r « 




i * 


• ■ f 




I < 


'jc';'i ■_ ’i?'*’.' / r,' ; i7? Si'l 

I • • '' -i 


V V' . 

^ J • 



*4 ^ 




<- 




■/ 




. f 


« • • 


' -i T'^®- • ! 


* t 


‘j-.i 

a': 


' ■\ ‘'V.-.' 


N** 



i . 


•Mk * I ‘ 

i * . A - • . 


Yvjf r 






v'v. ■. 


• ir 


# # 





Mi: 


THE ILLUSTRATIONS 


With the Bears at the North Pole . 

Choosing the Doll 

On the Way to the Palace 

On the Underground River . .. >.; 


Frontispiece 

PAGE 

. . . 12 

. . . 48 

. . 118 


/ 


. i 
1 





" ; V' 


f 


« « < 









4 


/ 


\ 


• \ 


'V' 


t 


t 

i 


« 


i 



■ t • 

• . I 



/ 

4 

i 

t ■ K 

) 

' , 


- » ' 

t 

f 

t 


{ 



> 


I 

t 

f 


\ 


i ' 




I 



i \ 



ALL ABOARD 
FOR WONDERLAND 



4 

0 

'V 

\ 

f I 


\ 


I • 

. t 


• > 


; 

« p 

p 



ALL ABOARD 
FOR WONDERLAND 


I 


OFF FOR NEW YORK 


HE Mertons were in the front hall, excitedly 



strugghng into overcoats. The day was 


Donald’s ninth birthday, and a Saturday, and 
only two days before Christmas. The hall clock was 
just striking nine, and their train was to leave in less 
than ten minutes. They were going to the city for a 
jolly time. 

‘‘Do hurry. Rose.” Donald looked impatiently at 
his little sister who was wrestling with the buckles of 
her arctics. 

“Here, I’ll help you,” said their father, kneeling 
on the stairs. “How’s that? Now you’re all right. 
Hat on just crooked enough and with a pink rose 
over each ear. All aboard then; are we ready?” 

“Yes indeed,” cried Mrs. Merton, opening the door 


2 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


and waving tHem out in front of her with her muff; 
“we haven’t a minute to spare.” 

The roads were white with newly fallen snow as 
they hurried along. 

“Mother, there goes a beautiful Christmas tree,” 
called Rose as a spicy smelling wagon from the flor- 
ist’s passed them. “I do believe it’s going to our 
house, too. Is it?” 

“Never mind,” cried their mother, whisking them 
around the corner; “there’s our train! We shall have 
to run, and there won’t be any time to stop for 
tickets.” 

They clambered aboard, a breathless group, and 
sank down into two of the empty seats — grown-ups 
behind, children tucked together in front. 

“Pretty close connection,” said their father. 
“When we come home to-night, Donald, you’ll have 
your new watch and you can see to it that we don’t 
have to run so.” 

“Who minds running?” Donald said, stretching his 
legs; “but it will be nice to have the watch, won’t it. 
Rose?” 

“Yes. Will you let me take it under my pillow 


OFF FOR NEW YORK 


8 


nights once in a while, Donald, so I can hear it ticking 
into my ear?’’ 

“I’ll see, on holidays perhaps, or when you’ve been 
extra good.” 

“There won’t be much left for your Christmas 
stocking, Donald,” Rose remarked cheerfully, after 
a minute’s pause; “everybody’s giving you things for 
your birthday instead.” 

“That’s so,” said Donald. “It is a shame that I 
have all my good times at once; but then think of the 
big birthday cake we’re going to have for supper to- 
night, Rose. I caught a glimpse of it in the pantry, 
though Mother shut the door quick when she saw me 
looking.” 

“I know,” said Rose wisely. “I watched her frost- 
ing it. White frosting with little pink lines running 
across it and pink candles.” 

“Did you taste it?” 

“No, Mother wouldn’t let me, but I think there’s a 
ring in it and a gold piece, a thimble, and, oh, it did 
smell so good when it was baking!” 

“It’s a pretty nice world, isn’t it. Rose?” Donald 
thoughtfully remarked, sniffing in imagination at 
the birthday cake awaiting them. “Great weather. 


4 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


white, snowy Christmas weather, and we going to the 
Hippodrome and to buy a silver watch and a boat. 
Daddy has promised me a boat, you know. Then 
there’s the tree to trim to-morrow! And say. Rose, 
you remember we’re going through the tunnel under 
the river. I expect you’re a little scared about it, 
aren’t you?” 

“No,” Rose retorted stoutly, “I’m not.” 

“Just think how damp and dark and awful it’s, go- 
ing to be there,” teased Donald. 

“It isn’t either. Mother said it would be just like 
other tunnels, and we wouldn’t know when we were 
under the river, didn’t you. Mother?” 

But their mother was so busily engaged in discuss- 
ing plans for the day with their father that she did 
not hear the question. 

“I’ll know,” Donald said emphatically. “I’ll hear 
the ferry boat we took last year tooting overhead, and 
the waves splashing against the sides of the tunnel 
walls; and, oh. Rose, how exciting it would be if the 
train should get stuck and we should have to walk out 
with torches and things! It’s good you have arctics 
on. Rose; you’ll need them before you’re through 
walking out of that tunnel.” 


OFF FOR NEW YORK 


5 


“You’ll be sorry you haven’t yours, too, then. You 
have new boots on.” 

“Oh, boys don’t mind getting their feet wet, and it 
will be a good chance to find out whether these shoes 
are really waterproof.” 

“We’re not going to have to walk out, Donald; 
you know we’re not,” said Rose. “Let’s not talk 
about it. Look out of the window and see how pretty 
everything is, done up in snow. This is the most 
beautiful country in the world, I think.” 

“It’s good enough. But I say. Rose, it would be 
fun if the country changed by magic eveiy^ few min- 
utes, wouldn’t it?” 

“It does,” said the more practical Rose. “A min- 
ute ago we were in Sunnyside, now we’re crossing a 
bridge and going along a river, and pretty soon — ” 

“Pooh, that isn’t what I mean, I mean real big 
changes, climate, people and everything. Suppose, 
for instance, I should shut my eyes tight, so — and 
when I opened them again there would be Egypt and 
the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Think of it, Rose! 
Can’t you see the Sphinx sitting there so still and 
solemn, always listening to your questions and never 
saying a word herself?” 


6 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

“I wouldn’t like her a bit, I’m sure. I like to have 
my questions answered,” said Rose. 

‘‘I bet you do! Well, if you don’t like Egypt I’ll 
shut my eyes again and we’d see — what would we see? 
Let me think — ” Donald was commencing his study 
of geography at school and foreign scenes fascinated 
him. “We’d see Norway, Rose, with great, high, 
black mountains and the sun shining, though all the 
clocks were pointing to midnight, and all the little 
children were tossing in their beds trying to go to 
sleep; or. Rose, what if our train, instead of just cut- 
ting under a river and bringing us up in New York, 
should go right through the center of the earth and 
come out in Venice, where you go about in boats all 
day long, and there’s a moon every night, and every- 
body sings songs and wears sashes and turbans.” 

“Why, Donald,” said Rose, “y<^^ were just saying 
how nice it was here, and what fun we were going to 
have to-day with the Hippodrome and choosing pres- 
ents and all. I’m sure I don’t want to go through 
to the other side of the earth, and I don’t believe 
Christmas is half as nice at Venice as it is at home. 
There wouldn’t be any Christmas trees, for one thing, 


OFF FOR NEW YORK 7 

or any birthday cakes or any — oh, here we go into the 
tunnel!” 

The children had not noticed how near they were, 
and now all at once the train plunged underground 
and they were speeding along in blackness, except for 
the few car lights. 

“Great, isn’t it?” whispered Donald. 

“The noise hurts my ears,” said Rose. She was 
glad when her mother leaned forward and she could 
nestle her face against her furry muff. Then in a 
few minutes it was all over and the car stood still. 

Their father hurried off to his business as soon as 
he had seen them safely up the moving staircase, but 
the children wanted their mother to show them around 
the station. So she did, and began with the rotunda, 
where Donald caught sight of the great colored maps 
on the walls and was lost for a while in his favorite 
study. 

“There’s the United States,” he cried, “with Flor- 
ida sticking an arm out into the sea, and there’s 
Europe opposite. It looks like a big ocean-monster. 
And Italy and Greece are two crooked legs. See that 
great turtle’s head coming up there — ^why, it’s Asia 


8 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

Minor. Doesn’t it look as though it was going to bite 
off Greece’s toe?” 

“It certainly does,” said his mother. “I never no- 
ticed it on any other map. Why, what a lot of geog- 
raphy you have learned!” 

“Yes,” said Donald, “I like it best of anything.” 

“Isn’t this nicer than Venice?” asked Rose. 

“I guess it is for to-day,” he smiled. “Look, Rose, 
we’re going shopping.” 

For they had mounted the steps at one end of the 
entrance hall and were passing between the lines of 
stores. The boy stopped in front of the book shop. 

“What makes the signs move around so?” he asked. 

“Why, I don’t know; there must be machinery at 
the back,” their mother answered vaguely. “They do 
it just to attract people and make them stop and buy 
the books.” 

“Well, that’s a good idea,” said Donald. He was 
trying to puzzle out an advertisement of a tiger-hunt 
in Africa when it was whisked out of sight at the end 
of the line and followed by a canoe trip down the 
Yukon River, which also disappeared around the 
curve. 

“We’ll go to the other end of the counter,” his 


OFF FOR NEW YORK 


9 


mother suggested, “then we’ll see them when they 
come around the loop at the back and we can follow 
them all the way across.” 

The tigers reappeared, and the children made sure, 
to their relief, that the great fierce cat did not eat the 
little native boy, but was shot by the himter in a hel-^ 
met. Another picture showed a canoe going through 
some rapids. The people in it looked ever so happy 
and secure. 

“I’m sure I wouldn’t if I were in the party,” com- 
mented Mrs. Merton. Donald, however, felt differ- 
ently and wished for a moment that he were there. 
Rose, in the meantime, had dashed across the entrance 
hall and was standing entranced before a window full 
of little boy dolls dressed in football clothes. 

“Oh, Mother,” she cried, “aren’t they darlings! 
Won’t you buy one for me?” 

“Oh, Rosebud dear,” her mother answered doubt- 
fully, “you have so many dolls already and those 
aren’t very pretty. But never mind,” she went on 
as Rose’s mouth began to curl down at the comers, 
“I don’t think you would want to carry it to the Hip- 
podrome anyway, and perhaps if you still want it 
when we come back. Daddy will get it for you.” 


10 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


‘Terhaps Daddy will get it,” was almost as good as 
a promise to Rose. She was all smiles again as the 
three walked out into the sunshine and confusion of 
the city streets. 


II 


A WINDOW IN TOYLAND 

E verything was like fairyland to the chil- 
dren. The shops were in their gayest Christ- 
mas trimmings and there were Santa Clauses 
on every side. 

Donald chose his ship early in the day and carried 
it proudly along. It had been agreed that Rose was 
to have a present, too, in honor of her brother’s birth- 
day, and not, as she protested, to “come out of her 
Christmas stocking.” 

“There, Mother,” she cried as they were walking 
toward the restaurant where they were to meet their 
father at luncheon. “There’s the doll I want! That 
conductor riding around on that cimning car.” 

Mrs. Merton and Donald stopped to look at the 
show window. 

“Isn’t he a darling!” 

“Yes,” said Donald, “and do see how stunning the 
whole window is! It’s laid out to look like a series 
of different scenes and Rose’s conductor is riding 
11 


12 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

around in one of those patent railway trains from 
place to place. There he goes now to a little red and 
white city with queer dolls hke people and toy ani- 
mals standing on the streets.” 

“Yes, and oh, Donald, look at the girl doll almost 
as big as he is, knitting under a tree at the end ! How 
much alike they are.” 

“Like two peas,” Donald agreed. “N ow the train’s 
off again and it’s going way back there out of sight ; 
it must he meant for a cave. Mother, it’s so black and 
dim.” 

“See the dear little, queer little doll peeping out! 
Oh, Donald, I wish we could see better.” 

“We can now. Here it comes again.” As Don- 
ald spoke, the train whizzed towards the front of the 
window. Here a snow scene was made of cotton bat- 
ting with glittering drops like frost, and in it a plump, 
sad-faced little chap was standing. 

“I like him best of all,” said Donald. 

He was dressed in white fur from head to toe, and 
looked exactly like their conductor, only his mouth 
turned down at the corners. 

Chance favored the children and sent their father 
along at the right moment. He made his way into 



Choosing^ the Doll 








A WINDOW IN TOYLAND 


13 


the crowded shop and soon came back with the two 
dolls, Donald’s snow man and Rose’s conductor, in 
his arms. 





They had had the joy of watching the salesman 
take them out of the window as Rose had insisted that 
no other two like them could possibly do. Donald 
had grown too big for dolls, so they decided to send 


14 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

the snow man straight to a friend at Dr. Grenfell’s 
mission in Labrador. “He’s so suitably dressed for 
the journey,” said their mother as Mr. Merton put 
the doll in his pocket. 

After luncheon their father left them and they went 
with their mother to the Hippodrome, and then rode 
in a taxi through the darkening streets where the 
electric signs were beginning to flash and blaze, till 
finally they were whirled into the station entrance, a 
tired but happy company. 

“I must telephone to your father,” said Mrs. Mer- 
ton, leading them into the waiting-room and settling 
them comfortably on a high-backed sofa. “I’ll ask 
him if he can’t come out with us on the next train. 
Sit here for a few minutes, I can watch you from the 
booth. Be good children, won’t you?” — and with a 
wave of good-by she was off, though they could still 
see her in one of the glass cases. 

Rose cuddled her doll contentedly, and leaned up 
against Donald’s shoulder. “It’s been lots of fun to- 
day, hasn’t it?” she murmured, “specially seeing all 
those splendid animals at the Hippodrome. I didn’t 
know there were so many in New York.” 

“Didn’t you like the people. Rose?” asked Donald, 


A WINDOW IN TOYLAND 


15 


“or the songs and music, or the stage full of girls all 
dressed like butterflies?” 

“Their wings were pretty, but I love the animals 
best, Don, and I just wish Daddy would buy an ele- 
phant like the one we saw!” 

“How would you take care of him I’d like to know? 
You always say you want to take care of your pets 
yourself.” 

“Course I do, when I remember. Oh, Donald, do 
you suppose Nora thought to feed my gold-fish to- 
day? We came off in such a hurry I forgot.” 

“I fed him before breakfast; Mother asked me to.” 

“Thank you,” patting his arm, “but I would surely 
remember about feeding my elephant, Don. I 
couldn’t forget him, he’s so big, he’d always be in the 
way.” 

“You couldn’t reach half way up his back,” said 
Donald. 

“I’d have a ladder,” Rose said dreamily. She was 
getting sleepy and her eyes were closing as she rested 
her head against Donald’s shoulder, “and I’d climb 
up and dust his great soft ears. Oh Donald, when 
do you think Mother will be back?” 

“Pretty soon, I guess. Just listen to that man, 


16 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


Rose, calling the trains, isn’t he funny? He shuts his 
eyes and just says the same words over and over 
again. Let’s go and see him closer.” 

“I’m so sleepy,” Rose complained, “besides. 
Mother, told us to stay here.” 

“So she did, and I’m sleepy, too,” Donald an- 
swered, “we’ll rest a few minutes and then perhaps 
Mother will be back and we can go with her. Rose, 
do you remember the maps we saw this morning? 
Let’s go and look at them again, I don’t believe 
Mother will mind.” But Rose had fallen asleep and 
Donald couldn’t bear to move his arm and wake her. 
“Oh, dear,” he sighed. “Oh, dear, I did want to see 
those maps!” He sank back and leaned his head 
against the high back of the sofa. The train man was 
still calling trains. 

“Five-forty express for Washington,” he began in 
the same even, sing-song voice. “Stops at Philadel- 
phia, Baltimore and Washington. Track Number 
Seven. All aboard!” Then he moved out of the 
waiting-room, and away to the other end of the sta- 
tion. Presently another voice commenced calling, 
but the sound seemed faint and far away. The voice 


A WINDOW IN TOYLAND IT 

was high and shrill, and Donald could barely catch 
the words. 

'‘Five fifty-nine express for India and the Ele- 
phants, on Inside Track. All aboard. Train No. 
777. No stops.” 

“What nonsense,” said Donald to himself. His 
arm was beginning to feel very prickly where Rose 
was lying on it, but the tingling feeling stopped all 
of a sudden leaving him too lazy and comfortable to 
move, though he had thought of looking to see where 
the little voice came from. Presently he heard a 
noise as though something had fallen to the floor, and 
the next minute he saw Rose running as fast as she 
could down the waiting-room. She was crying, 
“Stop! Stop!” 


Ill 


THE INSIDE TRACK 

‘ ‘ ^ ^ OSE,” called Donald overtaking her, 
“what’s the matter?” She only pulled 
^ him by the arm, and they hurried into the 
Rotunda. There he stopped and stared about in 
amazement. The whole place looked so different. 
Even the maps that hung high up on the walls had 
changed. 

“Is that the United States?” he thought. “It looks 
like a great big bear, nearly all covered with a dark 
rug, only one paw is left sticking out into the sea. 
And, Rose, see the three ostrich feathers hanging over 
the top! He’s got a hat on!” 

But Rose had run to the other side of the waiting- 
room, and beckoned Donald. He found her talking 
excitedly to a curious little man with round blue eyes 
like a big doll’s and lots of fluffy yellow hair. He 
was dressed like a messenger boy only in white and 

with a cap that said “Conductor,” in gold letters. On 
18 


THE INSIDE TRACK 


19 


his back was a knapsack and he had a yellow bag in 
his hand. This he opened, and taking out a brand 
new geography handed it to the children. They had 
never seen anything like it. The maps were named 
after the animals that lived in the countries, and were 
made to look like queer-shaped beasts. The children 
gazed at them fascinated. 

‘‘Come, come,” called the little man. “I’ll give 
you a ride in my train, and you can see these coun- 
tries, if you want.” 

“What?” cried the children together. 

“It must take a long time to get there, doesn’t it?” 
asked Rose. 

“Not if you have the Inside Track like me,” said 
the little man. 

“What’s the Inside Track?” 

“Come quick with me and you’ll find out.” He 
pulled out his watch. “Dear, dear ! There’s a train 
due now. I must announce it again.” 

He straightened himself and began to chant. 
“Five fifty-nine express for Elephant Isle and 
Camel Land on Inside Track.” (Donald recognized 
the voice as the one he had heard far off from the 
waiting-room. ) “A personally conducted tour in and 


20 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

out of the Earth. — Train No. 777. All aboard!” 

“Come along,” he cried, catching the children’s 
hands. “This way, hurry!” 

They ran through the great rotunda out into the 
hall where people were crowding through the differ- 
ent gates to their trains. So many others were hurry- 
ing along that nobody seemed to notice them. On 
and on they went through a long passage, and scam- 
pered down an alley-way with stone gratings on each 
side. Through these they could look down on other 
alleys below them, swarming with people. They 
turned a corner and found themselves at a gateway 
carved with figures of little animals, and above in 
bright purple letters was the sign, “Inside Track.” 

They passed through and the little man slammed 
the gate after them. 

“All right,” he cried with a long breath, “we can 
take our time now.” 

Then he pulled his watch out of his pocket again. 
“Just a minute to spare,” he said. 

“Well, that isn’t much time to allow when one is 
catching a train,” Donald remarked. 

“Oh, it isn’t any question of catching a train,” the 
little man answered, “the train can’t go without me. 


THE INSIDE TRACK 


21 


but I always make it a rule to keep strictly to the time- 
table. Never to be a minute behind.” 

As he spoke they were groping their way down a 
very steep hill. It grew darker and darker and be- 
gan to smell damp and cold. Their guide took from 
his pocket a little electric lantern and flashed it on 
the path before their feet. It was running along level 
now, an alley of blackness, and the walls above them 
were arched like the walls of a tunnel. At last they 
spied a tiny light shining out of a car window, and 
over the rear platform of the car were the letters ‘T. 

rji 

“Inside Track,” cried their guide, “all aboard.” 

He helped them up the steps. Then he pressed a 
switch and the whole place was flooded with electric 
light. 

The children gave one cry of joy! They had never 
seen anything so nice before. It was as though they 
had stepped into a fairy palace that would carry them 
in and out and around about the earth. 


IV 


VOCALIC 

I T was a car, that was certain, but a car just the 
size for children. No grown person could have 
stood up straight in it. The cushions were 
bright blue, the woodwork was painted gold, and the 
electric fixtures all turned out to be queer-shaped lit- 
tle animals’ heads with lights for eyes. Rose danced 
with delight. “Here we go!” cried their guide; and 
rushing to the other end of the car, he began fussing 
with a crank. He turned it once, twice, as Donald 
had often seen men start motor-boats. Then he 
shook a bag of counters that he drew from his knap- 
sack, and taking from it a scarlet chip, faced the chil- 
dren. 

“To the Elephant Island first,” he said, “where my 
sister sits under a tree in the shade. Now we are off 
by radium power which makes us go so very, very fast 
that we’ll be there and back almost before you can say 
Jack Robinson. In it goes!” 

22 


VOCALIO 


23 


He pushed the chip in a slot, there was a chck, a 
whirr, and off they ghded at ever increasing speed, 
smooth and swift as a toboggan down an iced slide, 
outward bound for Elephant Island on the Inside 
Track. 

“Now, my dears,” said their guide, when they were 
fairly imder way, “first let’s know who we are. My 
name’s Vocalio. Just what I am, too, 'Great Talker.’ 
I’m something of a jack of all trades; besides, I can 
run this car. I’m the conductor, brakeman, engineer, 
porter, fireman, cook and waiter all rolled into one. 
Now tell me your names.” 

“My name is Donald Merton,” Donald said, “and 
this is my sister Rose. I’m nine to-day and she’s 
seven.” 

“Nine and seven,” Vocalio said nodding brightly. 
“Couldn’t be better ages. Just the right time of life 
to enjoy a run such as I’m taking you on. Good long 
legs to climb about with,” eyeing Donald with favor, 
“and,” looking at Rose, “big brown eyes that look as 
if they weren’t afraid of anything. You aren’t, are 
you?” he asked. 

“No,” put in Donald loyally, “Rose is what Daddy 
calls a good sport.” 


24 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“I thought so,’’ said Vocalio, “and I think you’re 
one, too.” He shook Donald’s hand. “Now what 
are you two good sports especially fond of, I want to 
know?” 

“New places and queer people and machinery and 
things,” cried Donald. 

“No, just animals,” put in Rose. 

Vocalio rubbed his hands in delight. “Well, well, 
the Inside Track will suit you both to a ‘T,’ ” he 
cried. “There are lots of queer people and places. 
The machinery you’ll find right on this car. And as 
for animals ! I’ll show you different animals at every 
place we stop.” 

“As many as they had at the Hippodrome?” asked 
Rose. 

“To be sure,” Vocalio replied. “So you were at 
the Hippodrome, were you?” 

“Yes, Mother took us to-day for the first time,” 
Donald answered, “and we loved it all, especially the 
way the ship came bobbing out of the water at the 
end.” 

“You like ships, too, don’t you?” Vocalio touched 
the one Donald had carried so carefully all this time. 

“Yes indeed.” The boy proudly showed his new 


VOCALIO 


25 


toy. “Father gave me this for a birthday present 
and he bought Rose a doll, a queer little fellow like a 
conductor. By the way, Rose, where is that doll?” 

“It fell out of my lap.” 

“Oh, yes, I remember hearing it fall. You must 
have gone to sleep and let it drop.” 

“No, I didn’t go to sleep,” Rose answered, shak- 
ing her head. “The dolly just slid out of my lap all 
by itself, and I stooped down to pick it up, and then 
it ran away, and I got up and ran after it, but when 
I got to the big room it was gone.” 

“That’s queer,” said Vocalio. “But don’t you fret ! 
You’ll find it again, and you’ve got me, you know. 
That’s better than a doll, isn’t it?” 

“Yes,” smiled Rose. 

“Good.” He patted her hand. “Now I’ll tell you 
something queer that happened to me, too. I was 
expecting two children to go with me to-day. Not 
you two, but two others. They’re the children of the 
railroad president, I believe, and they’d chartered my 
car for a week. Well, I was looking all around for 
them and finally I thought I spied them asleep on 
a sofa in the waiting-room, opposite the telephone 
booths.” 


26 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“That’s where we were,” said Donald and Rose, 
looking at each other. 

“Really!” said Vocalio, “that’s odd. Well, when 
I saw them I thought they were surely the party I 
was expecting, and I was just going to shake them 
and wake them up, when I heard somebody tapping 
on the door of the telephone booth back of me. I 
looked round and there was a lady; she was dressed 
all in blue, with a big hat with red roses on it, and she 
had blue eyes and dark hair.” 

“Why!” cried both the children eagerly, “that’s our 
mother.” 

“She shook her head at me,” Vocalio went on, “and 
motioned me to go away and not wake you — those 
children, I mean — so I went, and then, the first thing 
I knew, you two came running after me. I thought 
at first you were the ones who had chartered my car. 
You’re very like them. Of course I found out the 
mistake before I got aboard, but,” he went on, giving 
a squeeze to their hands, “by that time I had taken 
such a fancy to you that I wanted you to have the 
treat instead of those other children. Why did they 
go to sleep if they wanted to come? And the nicest 
part of it is that your mother thinks those other chil- 


VOCALIO 27 

dren I saw there are you, so she’ll be quite comfortable 
about you.” 

“Will she take them home?” asked Rose, looking 
puzzled. 

“I believe she will,” said Vocalio. “I believe she’ll 
bundle them up and take them home with her and 
never know the difference.” 

“But I don’t want my mother to have any little girl 
but me,” Rose said, her mouth trembling and her 
golden brown eyes filling with tears. 

“Oh, come now,” said Vocalio; “didn’t I tell you 
we’d be back before you could say Jack Robinson 
alnxost. Time passes quickly when you have the In- 
side Track. And it isn’t every brother and sister that 
can have a trip like this, I tell you. A nice tidy little 
private car all their own and bound straight for Ele- 
phant Island. Think how much you’ll have to tell 
your mother when you get back.” 

“That’s true,” Donald said. “So don’t cry. Rose- 
bud dear. I’m sure Mother won’t worry.” 

Rose couldn’t feel very unhappy when Donald 
called her “Rosebud dear” and put his arms protect- 
ingly about her, so she dried her eyes obediently on a 
comer of his pocket handkerchief. 


28 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“Let’s take a look at the car,” said Donald; “we 
haven’t seen half the sights yet.” 

“To be sure you haven’t,” cried Vocalio, jumping 
to his feet; “this way.” 


V 

THE READING ROOM 

T he compartment where they had been sitting 
was shaped hke any other sleeping-car com- 
partment when it is made up for the day, only 
it was smaller. Vocalio was only an inch taller than 
Donald, yet his head came within a very little of 
touching the ceiling of the car when he stood up his 
straightest. So you can see that the ceihng could not 
have been very high. 

“I never take grown people,” said Vocalio; “they 
wouldn’t enjoy it.” 

The seats were just the right height for the chil- 
dren’s legs, and just a comfortable fit in the back. 
The car was divided into eight compartments and each 
one as they visited it held a delightful surprise. Op- 
posite their day coach was a section curtained off, and 
made up for the night; two little bunks, one over the 
other. Burning in a socket in the corner of each was 
a tiny electric light, no bigger than a birthday-cake 

29 


30 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


candle, that you could shut or open as you pleased. 

The next compartment down the aisle to the right 
was marked “Reading Room.” In the middle was a 
circular seat and there was a circular shelf built 
around the room, and filled with gay colored picture 
and story books. But the books went round and 
round till the children felt almost dizzy as they looked 
at them. 

“There’s a book about the Elephant Isle,” ex- 
claimed Rose. “Oh, Donald, do get it for me!” 

But Donald couldn’t seem to put his fingers on the 
Elephant Isle. It glided by and made way for an- 
other book called “The Prophet of the Panther Pal- 
ace.” 

“Hello, this looks interesting!” he exclaimed, and 
was just going to draw it from the shelf when it, too, 
slipped from his fingers and disappeared around the 
curve to be followed by a “Tale of Great Giraffes in 
Green Bushes.” And so on and on imtil “Elephant 
Isle” came around again. 

“How provoking!” said Rose. “Can’t you stop the 
machinery?” 

“Stop the machinery!” cried Vocalio aghast, “and 
leave us here half way between New York and Ele- 


THE READING ROOM 


31 


pliant Island and seven hundred miles underground? 
I should think not! Now I thought that rather a 
clever notion,” he said thoughtfully. ‘‘The machin- 
ery that starts the car starts these books going around. 
It wasn’t an original idea, of course. I copied it from 
the book advertisements in the station, hut I’m the 
only one that does it with real books. It saves a lot 
of wear and tear on them,” he added proudly; “these 
books are just as clean and whole as when I bought 
them.” 

“But nobody’s read them!” said Donald. 

“Why, no, nobody’s read them, to be sure, but then 
they’ve enjoyed them very much.” 

“How can you enjoy books until you’ve read 
them?” Donald inquired scornfully. 

“Why,” replied Vocalio, “easiest thing in the world. 
That’s the way I enjoy them most of all. And it’s so 
nice to look at them and know you can’t read them, no 
matter how much you ought to.” 

“Yes, but then why don’t you have stupid books?” 
asked Donald; “ones that nobody would want to 
read?” 

“Oh, I chose these by their covers,” Vocalio re- 
sponded promptly. “Babies love to watch them. 


32 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


The last time I took a little baby through here, her 
sister (I brought a little sister about ten years old to 
take care of her, you see) said she’d never seen the 
child so contented before. She was lying here on the 
seat, watching the books go round and round, like the 
song, you know, ‘Around, around, around,’ Some- 
times she’d stretch out her little hand for one, but 
mostly she’d just lie there and coo.” 

“Well, I’m not a baby,” Donald said indignantly; 
“books are no good if you can’t read them! I don’t 
call this much of a reading room! Let’s go some- 
where else.” 

“You can read them when we get there, you know,” 
said Vocalio; “they stop then.” 

“I hope I’ll have something better to do than sit in 
the car all the time we’re on the Elephant Island,” 
said Donald. 

“Come,” said Rose. “Let’s see the rest of the car.” 
For she was sure that Vocalio was quite hurt at Don- 
ald’s scorn of his invention. “What’s this room, Vo- 
calio?” 


VI 

THE MAGIC RESTAURANT 

I T proved to be the restaurant ; a fascinating place, 
all shining glass cupboards with dainty lunches of 
sandwiches, cakes, pies and tarts temptingly set 
out. There were dishes of salad, too, and chicken 
pies and patties. There were cream cakes and 
jelly rolls, and cups of steaming hot chocolate smoth- 
ered in whipped cream. And to crown all, a dainty 
bird’s nest of spun sugar, on which sat an adorable 
chocolate duck, with vanilla head, a strawberry bill 
and eyes, and two pistachio wings barred with orange 
ice. 

“Ah!” gasped both the children ecstatically, and 
they stretched out their hands for the good things. 

Vocalio laughed, then drew some funny looking 
counters from his bag and spread them out. “Chil- 
dren, this place is an automatic restaurant. Choose 

whatever you want to eat. Find the picture of it on 
33 



34 



THE MAGIC RESTAURANT 


35 


the counter, drop it here” — he pointed to a slot — 
“press a button, — and there you are! See?” 

“I must find that bird,” said Rose, searching 
eagerly among the counters. 

“Yes, but let’s begin with something else,” Donald 
suggested. “I’m going to have a cup of chocolate. 
Rose, and some chicken sandwiches, — ^how can I tell 
a chicken from a ham sandwich?” he asked, turning 
to Vocalio. 

“Look in the corner,” said Vocalio. 

They were square counters and there were several 
with pictures of sandwiches on them, and sure enough, 
in the corner of each, where you look for an initial on 
a pocket handkerchief, was a picture telling what the 
sandwich contained. There were some with a leg of 
ham in the corner, and some with a roast of chicken. 
One had a hard boiled egg cut in slices and lying on a 
green lettuce leaf. 

The children both chose a cup of chocolate, some 
chicken sandwiches, a pattie, a jelly roll and the won- 
derful bird. 

“Let’s have our chocolate and bread and butter 
first,” said Donald. So in went a counter, down went 
the button, there was a click, and a tiny glass door 


‘ 36 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


swung open exactly in front of each thing they 
wanted. One by one the children drew them eagerly 
from the shelves. After they had eaten for a while 
they dropped in the precious counter with the bird on 
it, and drew a breath of delight as the door in front of 
it swung open. 

Two httle spoons luckily went with that saucer. 
They were almost sorry to cut the bird across. But 
they did. Rose took the head and breast, Donald the 
wings and tail, and they finished every bit of him down 
to the last pink foot with the utmost satisfaction. 

“How do you keep things so icy cold in one place 
and so boiling hot in another?” asked Rose. 

“He packs the hot things in a compartment sur- 
rounded by hot water pipes, I guess,” Donald said; 
“that’s the way Daddy told me they do in some res- 
taurants. And I suppose the cold things are sur- 
rounded by artificial ice, aren’t they, Vocalio?” 

But Vocalio only smiled at them, looking very wise. 

“It’s all in having the Inside Track,” he said, and 
Donald could get no further explanation from him. 

"When the children had finished, Vocalio carried the 
dishes to the kitchen and put them into an automatic 
dish-washer and washed and dried them in no time. 


THE MAGIC RESTAURANT 37 

Then he sorted them into different slides that led into 
the restaurant, pressed a button, and they all shot back 
into place on the shelves. And not only were they all 
in place again, but each dish was supplied with the 
food it had before. There was the steaming hot 
chicken pattie, looking like the very same one that the 
children had just finished. The piles of sandwiches 
were built up again, the cups were filled with choco- 
late, and there was the very same bird sitting on her 
spim glass nest. The children looked bewildered, and 
almost began to feel hungry again. 

“Why, we might just as well have had one apiece,’’ 
said Donald. 

Vocalio laughed. He swept the counters up and 
put them back in his bag. 

“I only keep one counter on hand for the fancy 
things,” he said, “but come now, if you’ve had a good 
enough supper, let’s look at the rest of the car, shan’t 
we?” 

“Oh, yes,” cried Rose. “We couldn’t possibly eat 
any more, either of us. What’s this cimning little 
place over here, Vocalio?” 


VII 


THE BARBER SHOP 

‘ I ^HAT,” Vocalio said with pride, “is my bar- 
I her shop! You didn’t know that barbering 
was one of the things I could do, did you? 
Any time you want your hair cut or curled, let me 
know.” 

There were four long mirrors set on the four sides 
of this room with a revolving barber’s chair in the mid- 
dle. “And here,” he went on, opening another door, 
“is what I call my greenroom. I keep clothes for any 
climate. Look!” He whipped off Rose’s jacket and 
hat in a twinkling. “Your white dress is very pretty, 
but a dash of color is good in the Orient where we are 
bound. What do you think of this?” 

He had been feeling around in a chest in one corner. 
Now he drew from it a scarlet, gold-embroidered 
jacket and slipped it over her shoulders. Next he 
brought out a belt to match and fastened it around her 
waist. 


38 


THE BARBER SHOP 


3© 


“Oh,” she cried, dancing up and down in delight, 
“how beautiful 1 And could I have the cap, too, 
please?” and she pointed to a httle cap in the chest. 

“To be sure,” Vocalio answered; “the cap goes with 
the costume, of course. There you are, as fine as a 
queen.” And he set the little skull cap coyly on one 
side, so that the gold tassel dangled over her ear. 
Rose danced into the barber’s shop and looked herself 
over in the mirror. 

“It’s beautiful,” she said; “there’s only one thing 
that isn’t right. My hair ought to be curled. Oh, 
Vocalio, could you curl it for me, before we get there? 
The train runs so smoothly I should think you could. 
You see, mother’s hair is straight like mine, but when 
she’s acting in plays she always curls it: she says it 
makes her feel more like the part.” 

“Well, but you’re not playing a part,” said Donald, 
“so why do you want to look different?” 

“I am playing a part,” Rose declared ; “I’m dressed 
up like a princess or a Turk or a fairy or — something. 
Oh, Vocalio,” she cried, a thought striking her, “why 
can’t Donald and I really act parts, and pretend to he 
the railroad president’s children that you expected?” 

“To be sure,” Vocalio agreed, entering into the 


40 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


plan, “now I think of it they are getting up a celebra- 
tion for them in the elephant’s coimtry where we’re 
going. They’ll have special carriages for you.” 

‘T hoped we’d ride on elephants, didn’t you, Don- 
ald?” 

“Yes.” 

“Why, of course,” put in Vocalio; “special ele- 
phants, I should have said. His Majesty’s Favorite 
will be waiting for us at the station.” 

He led the way into the barber shop, and seated 
Rose in the chair while he got his implements ready. 

The tongs were heated at an electric heater. Vo- 
calio waved them round and round by their ivory han- 
dle and tried them with a wet finger to be sure they 
were not too hot. 

“How nice that those children didn’t come,” re- 
marked Rose contentedly; “this is such fun!” 

She watched Vocalio coaxing her straight little top- 
knot around the tongs. The soft yellow hair yielded 
quickly to his touch. 

Skillfully he slid out the tongs, and the curl fell 
warm and shapely against Rose’s cheek. 

“Oh,” she cried ecstatically. 

Vocalio made five shorter ones in the back. He 


THE BARBER SHOP 


41 


combed the whole mass out into a golden halo about 
her head, only he brushed the first curl round his 
finger and tied it with a scarlet ribbon. Then he set 
the Turkish cap on top, and Rose eyed herself with 
satisfaction. 

“I’m so glad I happened to have on red shoes,” she 
said. “I wore them because they slipped under my 
arctics so easily — ^they’re a little soiled though, aren’t 
they, Donald?” 

“That’s all right,” said Vocalio briskly. “When 
you go to bed put them under the berth and they’ll be 
all shined when we get there.” 

“Can you shine red shoes?” Rose asked. 

“To be sure, to be sure,” Vocalio answered, “you 
can do all kinds of things if you have the Inside Track, 
the way I have. You’d better go to bed now, both of 
you,” he added; “you want to rest a bit before we get 
there.” 

“I’m afraid of taking the curl out of my hair if I 
lie down,” Rose said, touching her ringlets. 

“Never mind if you do,” said Donald; “it’s just as 
pretty without.” 

The children took off their shoes and put them un- 
der the berths as they had been told. Vocalio took 


42 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

them at once and disappeared to the other end of the 
car. 

Then Donald climbed into the berth above his sister. 
Rose drew up the shade and peered out; but it was 
dark, and she shivered a little, thinking where they 
were. Drawing the shade down, she lay back, careful 
not to muss her hair. 

The car was partly darkened now, but Rose could 
hear Vocaho brushing away at the shoes. He fin- 
ished, and came down the aisle and set them back un- 
der the berths. Then he went back to his own little 
compartment at the rear and drew the curtains. 

Rose began to feel lonely. ‘‘Donald,” she called 
but Donald made no answer. 

“Perhaps he’s asleep,” Rose said to herself. “I 
wish I were!” 

She sighed and lay back again and began to listen 
to the sound of the wheels. Rose had always fancied 
that the wheels were singing a dull, rumbling song to 
her when she was on a journey. These wheels, too, 
kept humming along as they rushed through the dark. 
It was a cheerful kind of humming, as though to tell 
her that there was no reason for her to be lonely or 
blue. Presently she seemed to hear words to the song. 


THE BARBER SHOP 4 ^ 

She could barely catch them at first, but held her 
breath and listened. 

“Oh, the wonderful world of the Inside Track I 
To the palace you’ll ride on an elephant’s back. 

You shall see many sights as you gayly parade. 

There are camels and cobras, but don’t be afraid.” 

“Course I’m not afraid of camels,” thought Rose, 
“but I don’t know what a cobra is.” 

“Oh, the wonderful world of the Inside Track! 

Of frolic and merriment there is no lack. 

The Rajah would choose you for one of his girls 
If only you really and truly had curls.” 

“I don’t want to be one of his girls,” Rose said to 
herself sleepily, “so I’m glad my hair is straight.” 

“Oh, the wonderful world of the Inside Track” — 

The song died away, while the wheels hummed c* 
through the silence. 


VIII 

ALL ASHORE FOR THE ELEPHANT ISLE 

W HEN Rose opened her eyes the car had 
stopped, and Donald was leaning over 
the edge of his bunk looking down at her. 
“Hello,” he called, “had a good night?” 

“Yes, after I got to sleep. I lay awake a long 
time, though, listening to the wheels, and I thought I 
heard a voice singing, — ^what were the words? I 
can’t remember now.” 

“I know,” said Donald, — 

“Oh, the wonderful world of the Inside Track! 

Beware of the crocodiles ugly and black; 

They feed them with biscuit, and say they are tame. 

But give a wide berth to their jaws just the same!” 

“How funny,” said Rose, “whoever heard of a cro- 
codile’s liking biscuit? Mine didn’t go like that, Don- 
ald. But never mind, it’s all awfully exciting, isn’t 
it?” 


44 


ELEPHANT ISLE 


45 


Here Vocalio came running up to them to ask how 
they had slept. He helped Rose on with her shoes, 
and then dusted her off carefully with a cunning httle 
whisk broom, just the way porters do on the Outside 
Track trains. When Donald climbed down Vocalio 
did the same for him. Then he ran to the end of the 
car and came back with an armful of painted hoops. 
Each had a stick tied to it, and each stick had a gaily 
colored knot of ribbon at the end. 

“Carry these, will you?” he said and slung them 
on Donald’s arm. To Rose he gave a huge cornu- 
copia nearly as big as herself, fiUed with bonbons of 
every kind. Then he made one more trip and re- 
turned staggering under half-a-dozen large hat boxes. 

“Oh, I have more cosy hiding places in this car than 
you have found yet. These were hidden away in cor- 
ners in my room. What are they for? — ^they’re pres- 
ents for the wives of the Rajah. We’re all expected 
to bring presents, you know. Donald gives the hoops, 
and perhaps he’d better bring his ship along, too, as 
Rose hasn’t any gift but the candy. He can give it 
to the Rajah’s heir.” 

“What!” cried Donald, “my birthday present! I 
guess not.” 


46 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

“Oh, Donald dear, do, please, if Vocalio wishes it,” 
Rose pleaded. “Think what fun we are going to 
have!” She turned to Vocalio, “Perhaps they’ll give 
us presents, won’t they?” 

“Perhaps,” was the doubtful answer. ‘‘Any how, 
you’ll get a fine ride on an elephant, and you’re hav- 
ing this trip in and out the world, expenses paid. So 
you ought not to begrudge one boat, ought you?” 

“All right,” said Donald reluctantly. 

“Come along then, all ashore.” 

They walked through their car to the back platform 
where Vocalio got off and helped Rose down with 
her bag of candy. Donald passed the six hat boxes, 
one by one, to Vocalio, and got down with his own 
load. Then they all three marched along on little 
sidewalk running from the car to a tiny opening; ever 
so far away at the end of the tunnel. As it grew 
lighter and lighter they heard laughter and street 
sounds, and finally reached the opening. The chil- 
dren stared in bewilderment at the scene before them. 


IX 

ON THE WAY TO THE PALACE 

T hey found themselves in the entrance-way of 
a large white building on the street of a city. 
But how different from the city they had left 
behind! In New York there had been electric 
cars, automobiles, horses and carriages. Here were 
painted carts drawn by young bulls, camels trotting 
along loaded with packs and driven by brown boys 
who were dressed only in white sashes and turbans, 
best of all, here were real elephants, bigger and 
grander than any the children had dreamed of 1 And 
right in front of them stood one, the biggest of all, 
with the gayest harness, a dear little seat fastened on 
his back and a brown boy standing beside him. 

Vocalio spoke a few words to the boy. Then he 
beckoned to the children and said, “This is the elephant 
prepared for the two wealthy Americans, so hop 
aboard.” 

The children were anxious enough to hop aboard, 
47 


48 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


but it did not seem the easiest thing in the world to do. 
However, the boy and the elephant arranged matters 
for them. The boy shouted to the elephant, who 
doubled up his fat knees and sank down, first on those 
in front, then on those behind. Then the boy set a 
little ladder up against his back and motioned the 
children to mount. They climbed up and sat facing 
forward, and Vocalio sat facing backward. The boy 
sat just back of the elephant’s head, and shouted an- 
other order. The great beast began to get up. It 
grew exciting, as they swayed this way and that. 
Rose held tight to Donald, hoping that their seat was 
well fastened on. 

Finally the elephant got onto his legs and began to 
trot. At first the motion made the children’s teeth 
chatter, but after a while they grew used to it, and 
were able to look about them. 

“Why do they all wear shawls?” Rose whispered 
over her shoulder to Vocalio, as well as she could for 
the jolting. 

“Making Cashmere shawls is the great industry of 
this country,” he answered. 

“Oh yes,” Donald chimed in, “I remember learn- 
ing about that in geography. The shawls are so fine 



On the Way to the Palace 









■ - V . : , * 



' x-^'i ,.:. fjL 

fW' •■ .■'^iv»-i. 3f 


.V *‘ * ^ • 3 rr. *)►■ 

j|fi - - -- v-v * "*' ” 

‘ •■ ■ . .‘' ■'.. * ,. ■ . . 

*■ ' * - t ‘^ir*V 


I » 


/ 


«■ ( 


^ .V. •> 

’ I 

.'S . 






• » <• 


« ‘#i, 
» • 


...Ml • . . . 


4 • 

1 /. 


o ’ 

it * 




I 


M 

.>\ • 


J 


« 


1 . . 

t • " .7j?> / 


- * ft 1' 

-a 

-1' ^ - 

# • 

♦ 


.'V , 4(^ 


P . 

• 

• 


Uv,'! 


*9 


M> ' • 


• > ^ 

. - 2 - 

• fli % 


- <■ ^ ^ ’ 

..« *• % ^ 4 

' w '■«> 

. i» 


,* « > 

•* •• •• . . * 

^ • 1 . 

r^-V' " /:;;7v<:, , 



.1 


» - A'’ y ■'■ 


■*'■ *'‘V*.V 7 rv-^' ■ .- s ' , (^ ^ *'*‘'*r*' ^ -*.., 

• • ■^: > 

^ ^•’ . ' * . * t ■' * r *’*■ • ^ ' r^ ^•** *- ^ Ml? > ■' » i 

*li^>’-'^-:Lj" •' * / .' ■ K*j^. •AymS 

. ''. .*1 -SaS 

‘:‘v ^ ■ V • ,. .. .. -. . ‘ ' •.’ '■ '# ^<7vi 

■^•1^ b • i^' » V ^ •''^^ * 'J • ' » • - . li J li- » '^ ■•• \ 

^ Kijk\ r ^ ./ • \jr^ 

• -• • ^ ^ . wA 


k*tr - 



'. v:;';at- '. 

, i^ •* 

ft * . . 


i I 


V ■ *4 


*'. '•, * ' 

i V ^ r' ’ ■’ ■ 

• «■*' ||q^ 4 qw^^ 


■,ii/'’'i 5 ft: 



ON THE WAY TO THE PALACE 49 


they can be drawn through a finger ring, yet they are 
as warm as a Scotch blanket. Oh, Vocalio, don’t you 
suppose one of those little boys would show us how 
he does it?” 

“Easiest thing in the world.” Vocalio called to the 
driver to stop the elephant and he beckoned a group 
of little boys to come nearer. The boys’ shawls were 
pinned neatly in front with a gold pin made like an 
elephant’s head, the trunk twisted up into a ring. 
The boys unfastened their shawls. At the same mo- 
ment each boy held his ring between the thumb and 
forefinger and drew the shawl through the ring. 
Then they put the shawls on again and looked up eag- 
erly at the children as though they expected some- 
thing. 

“Aren’t they darlings!” cried Rose, “so brown and 
glossy. Have you any pennies for them, Donald?” 

“No,” replied Donald, rummaging in his pockets. 

“Give them some of these,” said Vocalio, pointing 
to the cornucopia. 

“Oh yes,” Rose cried, and they threw heaping hand- 
fuls of bonbons down among the children. There was 
a scramble and a joyous munching! Rose was hor- 
rified to see that they ate caramels and molasses kisses, 


50 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


paper and all. Vocalio finally said they must leave if 
they were going to the palace, so very reluctantly, 
looking back many times at the gay little lads, they 
went on up the bright, noisy street. 

Presently they stopped in front of a huge building 
of white marble, all glittering in the sunlight. The 
children felt sure this must be the palace. They were 
a little shy as they had never seen a king or queen or 
ruler of any kind before, and didn’t know what was 
expected of them. 

‘Ts my cap on straight?” Rose asked Donald in a 
frightened whisper when they had shpped to the 
ground and were ready to climb the huge flight of 
steps. 

“Oh yes, it’s all right,” he answered carelessly, “but 
I wish I didn’t have this great bunch of hoops to 
carry !” 

Somehow the little wooden toys did seem funny 
compared with the magnificence in front of them. 

“You have the ship, too, you know,” Rose said en- 
couragingly. 

“Yes,” Donald answered, looking at it proudly, 
“and I’d like to show those children how to sail it.” 


ON THE WAY TO THE PALACE 51 


Vocalic was hovering about, collecting his band- 
boxes and refilling Rose’s cornucopia. 

“I declare we look like Santa Claus,” Rose said 
gaily. ‘T wonder what the Sultan will think of us! 
Is his name Sultan, Vocalic?” she asked. 

“No,” Vocalic replied, “it’s Maharajah! But you 
need only say ‘Your Majesty.’ Here we go, now, to 
the Maharajah.” 


X 


IN THE PALACE OF THE MAHARAJAH 

T he Maharajah was evidently expecting com- 
pany for he was sitting wonderfully dressed 
and glittering with jewels, his Prime Minister 
frowning at the back of his chair, and his wives stand- 
ing huddled in groups on either side. The Prime 
Minister and the wives were all dressed in shawls cut 
like the shawls of the people on the street, only stud- 
ded with jewels. The children advanced shyly and 
uncertainly, but Vocalio pushed past them and knelt 
down, a curious little figure, a tower of hat boxes on 
either side. 

“With Your Majesty’s permission — ” he began fal- 
teringly. 

The Maharajah interrupted him sharply. “Vo- 
calio, my boy, never mind your preamble about my 
‘broad mindedness and my desire to keep abreast with 
the latest strides of European civilization’ — I know all 
you are going to say before you open your mouth. 

52 


IN THE PALACE 


53 


What I don’t know is. What have you got for the 
troublesome creatures this time ?” 

“The latest style in hats,” said Vocalio. plumping 



The Maharajah 

down the hat boxes before the Maharajah. “They 
can be worn by the most modest Oriental lady,” and 
here he bowed right and left to the “troublesome crea- 
tures,” the Maharajah’s wives. 


54 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“Try them on,” the Maharajah commanded, gra- 
ciously waving^ his hands, and the fourteen wives 
sprang for the hat boxes as eagerly as the street boys 
had scrambled for the candy and made their way on 
tip-toe to the end of the room where there were four- 
teen mirrors hung in a row. 

“And you,” he said, turning to Donald, “what have 
you brought?” 

Donald displayed the hoops. 

“Show me how they are used,” he said. So Don- 
ald obligingly sent one spinning across the palace floor 
and back again. 

“Good!” cried His Majesty clapping his hands, 
“now you, too,” he said, pointing to Rose. Rose took 
her turn. 

“Could you do that?” the Maharajah inquired, 
turning suddenly to his Prime Minister. 

The Prime Minister looked shocked and frowned 
harder than ever. 

“Certainly not!” he replied positively. 

“Try!” the Maharajah commanded. ‘‘Boy, bring 
him one.” 

Donald advanced slowly with the hoop. The 


IN THE PALACE 


55 


Prime Minister looked so very angry that he was al- 
most afraid to offer it to him, but he did not dare dis- 
obey the Maharajah. 

Sulkily taking the hoop, the Prime Minister gave it 
a blow that sent it spinning across the palace floor. 

“Run after it!” commanded the Rajah. 

‘T can’t,” the Prime Minister complained in vexa- 
tion ; “I’ve the gout in my right foot.” 

“Run with your left foot then,” His Majesty com- 
manded sternly, “only run, man, run, and be quick 
about it 1” 

(As if one were not always quick about running. 
Rose thought to herself as she watched the scene and 
tried hard not to laugh.) 

The Prime Minister looked very funny as he half 
ran, half hobbled, after the hoop. He did it very 
badly and the hoop slid away and ran into one of the 
corners, where the wives caught it and commenced 
quarreling about it. 

“May I give the others to them?” Donald asked, 
when the Prime Minister, hot and scowling, had again 
taken his place. 

“Yes,” the Maharajah muttered, “tell them to take 


56 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


them out to the courtyard though, I can’t bear to see 
them play in here. It makes me want to take a turn 
myself.” 

“Why don’t you?” asked Donald. 

“Wouldn’t do,” the Maharajah answered gloomily. 
Then he turned again to Donald and pointed to the 
ship. “AVhat’s that for?” 

Donald set the ship down in front of the Mahara- 
jah. 

“I’d like to show your little boy how to sail this,” 
he said, holding it up proudly. “She’s a beauty, a 
three-master, you see, and trims finely if you know 
how to handle her.” 

The Maharajah viewed the boat with interest. 

“Summon His Highness,” he said, speaking over 
his shoulder to his Minister. The Minister beckoned 
a slave, who disappeared in the direction of the court- 
yard back of them. 

“Now for your gift,” he went on, turning to Rose. 

Rose timidly extended the cornucopia to the Rajah. 
It seemed such a very poor gift for such an august 
personage that she was quite shy about offering it. 
To her surprise and delight the Maharajah’s eyes di- 
lated with joy at the sight. He eagerly thrust in a 


IN THE PALACE 57 

hand and drew out a dozen bonbons, and began munch- 
ing away as hard as he could. 

“He’s eating paper and all, too,” Rose thought to 
herself, “but I shan’t worry about its making him 
sick — he can stand it.” 

She couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for the poor 
Prime Minister whose eyes were fairly sticking out 
of his head, he wanted some candy so badly. But the 
Maharajah never offered him a bit. Once he looked 
over his shoulder and called out, “These would be 
bad for your gout.” That made the Prime Minister 
angrier than ever, but as he had just complained of 
his gout, he couldn’t very well say anything. 

After a while the Maharajah’s wives came tip-toe- 
ing back, peeping shyly out from under their new hats 
and looking very droll indeed. Vocalio had selected 
straw hats trimmed with wreaths of gaudy colored 
flowers, hats that set so low on their heads that they 
covered them down to their mouths. Their veils were 
drawn up to their mouths, so there wasn’t much of 
their faces to be seen. They wore shawls, too, and 
sashes all studded with jewels, and the Maharajah 
called them up one by one and told them that they had 
his gracious permission to wear their headgear as he 


58 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


considered it most becoming and modest. Then he 
gave them each a chocolate peppermint and told them 
to run away again. 

“Mean thing!” Rose whispered to Donald, “I’m 
sure he gives the peppermints away because he likes 
them least himself.” 

“Hush, he’ll hear you,” Donald whispered back. 
And at that minute the Maharajah summoned Rose 
before him, and sent Donald out into the courtyard 
with the Prince to sail his boat. 

Rose was horribly frightened lest her thoughtless 
remark had been overheard, but the Maharajah’s first 
question put her fears to rest. 

“Does your hair really curl like that,” he asked, “or 
was it put in on purpose?” 

“It’s natural,” broke in the Prime Minister snap- 
pishly from behind the Maharajah’s chair. He had 
not gotten over his ill temper at not having any choco- 
lates. 

“Nobody asked your opinion,” the Maharajah an- 
swered, glowering at him, “but if you want to wager. 
I’ll bet you it’s not.” 

“Oh, Your Majesty, what difference can it make to 
you whether it is or isn’t,” Rose said, for she knew thq 


IN THE PALACE 


59 


Prime Minister would be vexed at losing his wager, 
and she dreaded seeing him angry. 

The Maharajah looked quite serious for a moment. 
Then he said gravely, “Child, I like your looks 
very much and would consider contracting a marriage 
between you and the prince, my son — only the Prin- 
cess must have curly hair, real curls.” 

“Well, then,” said Rose, trying to hide her smile of 
relief, “I can’t be the Princess because these curls 
were put in by Vocalio with a hot iron last night.” 

The Maharajah looked quite disappointed and took 
to the cornucopia again for comfort. 

“Your Majesty,” said Vocalio, “might I look out 
in the courtyard there,” nodding in the other direc- 
tion from the one in which Donald had disappeared, 
“and show this young friend my sister and her pets?” 

“Oh yes,” said the Maharajah with a yawn, “but 
Hemp’s show is about played out. Those fat, fang- 
less snakes of hers will hardly do to scare anybody 
with now. You might try it on her though,” he 
added, grinning at Rose, “or on him,” and he pointed 
to the Prime Minister; “they’re both awfully fond of 
snakes and snake charmers, I’m sure.” 

“Your Highness,” said the poor Prime Minister, 


60 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“I ask your gracious permission not to visit the snakes 
again this week, I have a horror of them,” and he 
shuddered as he spoke. 

“I don’t mind snakes a bit,” said Rose stoutly, “but 
I’d love to go and play with Donald and the Prince, 
mightn’t I?” 

“No,” cried the Maharajah, frowning at her, “not 
as long as your curls are not real. Forward Vocalio! 
We will all visit the snakes. This sport will be too 
good to lose.” 

And the Maharajah rose from his chair, shouldered 
his scepter, and, clutching the Prime Minister firmly 
by the arm, led the way with him along the passage. 
Rose followed reluctantly with Vocalio, who bent and 
whispered in her ear, “Hemp’s my only sister, and she 
would be dreadfully hurt if we didn’t come and see 
her.” 

“All right,” answered Rose out loud, “I don’t 
mind.” 

“These snakes of Hemp’s are quite harmless, my 
dear,” said the Maharajah, “and really they’re awfully 
clever.” He held the Prime Minister tightly by the 
arm as he spoke. 

The Prime Minister’s teeth chattered. Every now 


IN THE PALACE 


61 


and then he tried to break away and run back, but the 
Maharajah was the stronger of the two. Rose 
couldn’t help laughing when she looked at them, they 
were so ridiculous together. 

They had reached the end of the corridor by this 
time and could see the courtyard with its pond and 
flowering things, and with a single tree standing di- 
rectly in front of the entrance by the edge. It was a 
curiously shaped and twisted tree with one long branch 
that stretched out to one side and under this sat 
Hemp, the snake charmer, knitting. Rose gave a 
cry of surprise as she looked. 

“Why, I’ve seen her before somewhere, Vocalio, sit- 
ting under a tree just like that. And oh, how alike 
you two look! Why has she hung her stockings over- 
head to dry?” Rose pointed to some brown and spot- 
ted things that were swinging softly back and forth 
from the branch. 

The Maharajah chuckled while the Prime Minister 
uttered a groan. 

“Hear that?” cried the Maharajah, clutching his 
companion more firmly. “She calls them stockings. 
Do you think they would fit you? Try one on, I say.” 

The Prime Minister groaned. 


62 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“Hemp,” called the Maharajah, “command your 
pets to bid us welcome! We are here!” and he 
stamped his foot and brandished his scepter. 

Hemp looked and nodded. 

“As soon as I get to the end of the row. Your Maj- 
esty,” she said. “Glad to see you. Minister, and the 
little lady, too.” 

Then she dropped her eyes to her knitting again 
and went on counting. “One, two, three, widen; one, 
two, three, narrow; — there, that’s finished! Now my 
beauties !” She whistled softly between her teeth and 
the “stockings” as Rose called them (but they were 
really Hemp’s pet snakes) , twisted themselves about 
until they spelled in curious old-fashioned writing the 
word 



“Good,” cried Rose, clapping her hands. 

“I thought you’d hke them,” said Vocalio delight- 
edly. And Hemp sitting under the chain of snakes 
beamed at Rose. “Some people,” (with a glance at 
the poor Prime Minister who had sunk in a shivering 


IN THE PALACE 


63 


heap on the floor), “can’t appreciate her pets, and it 
makes her very cross. Here is the silk you asked for. 
Hemp,” and Vocalio produced it from his knapsack. 

“Thanks, that’s a good match,” said Hemp approv- 
ingly. 

“What are you knitting?” asked Rose. 

“Skins for my snakes,” said Hemp, glad of so ap- 
preciative a guest. “They’re so fond of me, but they 
do chill me a bit when they cuddle up close, and of 
course I can’t bear to hurt their feelings by pushing 
them away, so I thought of this plan. I’ve just fin- 
ished this skin. Want to hold it open for me, and I’ll 
show you how neatly it fits?” 

Rose took what Hemp handed to her. It was a 
very long, slender knitted bag of green silk tapering 
at the end but wide enough for her to stretch it into 
quite a good opening at the top. 

“I’ll put little Neverbites into this,” said Hemp, 
taking down the end snake. “Now, stop your wrig- 
gles, little chap, and put the tip of your tail right into 
the stocking where it belongs. Here it goes! Now 
I’ll take him, thanks. And this draws up around his 
head with two nice little holes for his eyes and one for 
his tongue. There he is, — aU snug and warm and 


64 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


dry. Now, my beauty, you shall have a drink for 
being so good.” 

She set down a saucer of warm milk before her pet. 
Rose watched him interestedly. “He doesn’t spill 
a bit on his new skin,” she thought. “How tidy 
snakes are.” 

“Have you taught them anything new since I was 
here, Hemp?’- asked the Maharajah, who thought he 
had been left out of the conversation quite long 
enough. 

“I’ve trained them to do a few sums,” Hemp said 
modestly. 

“Good! Lets have them.” 

Hemp gathered the remaining snakes from the tree, 
caught up a little whip and put a silver whistle to her 
lips. By means of a series of flicks and whistles she 
arranged five of the snakes along the pavement till 
they formed the following figures — 

8 2 

29 3 

“Somebody must put a plus mark between eight 
and two,” she said; “I’ll count and we’ll see who gets 
first turn.” And she pointed to the four as they sat 


IN THE PALACE 65 

in a semi-circle on the ground and began reciting 
something that sounded like an old rhyme. 

‘‘Woodcock, pheasant, partridge, quail. 

Catch a cobra by its tail, 

If he bites you don’t turn pale, 

Partridge, woodcock, pheasant, quail.” 

“There! you begin, Prime Minister.” She tossed 
the chalk into his lap. 

“Take it man, and draw the mark,” cried the Ma- 
harajah, digging him in the ribs. 

“I can’t,” wailed the Prime Minister. 

“You must,” cried the Maharajah, “or I’ll have 
your hair cut. Vocalio, summon the royal barber.” 

The Prime Minister, fairly shrieking at this threat, 
staggered to his feet. 

“It’s mean of them to tease the poor man so,“ said 
Rose to Vocalio in a whisper. “Hemp knew the turn 
would come to him when she began at the other end 
of the line.” 

“Would you like to take his place?” asked the Ma- 
harajah. 

“Yes,” said Rose. 

“Good! Hemp, see that she gets next turn.” 


66 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

“Very well, your Majesty. Now,” to the Prime 
Minister, “make your plus mark here,” and she 
pointed between the snakes that were forming eight 
and two, “make an equal sign here, and then stand 
aside as quickly as you can.” 

“But there are two others of your creatures,” 
gasped the Prime Minister, pointing to the largest 
two snakes that were coiled up opposite and swayed 
back and forth. 

“They’re to give the answer,” explained Hemp; 
“that’s why I told you to step back quickly so as to 
give them room.” 

The Prime Minister made a faint mark, nearly 
dropping the chalk he trembled so. “Eight plus two, 
but you haven’t made the equal sign,” said Hemp, 
holding him as he started to run back. “Quick, the 
others are getting impatient.” 

The Prime Minister clutched the chalk again and 
scratched two faint parallel marks with it. Then he 
fell back on to the Maharajah just in time to escape 
being hit by the two snakes who glided swiftly up and 
laid themselves out at the end, one a straight line, the 
other a gruesome circle and both with glassy eyes fas- 
tened on the poor Prime Minister. 


67 


IN THE PALACE 
8 + 2 = 10 

“Eight plus two equals ten,” read the Maharajah. 
“Correct! What next. Hemp?” 

“The other is a sum in multiplication,” said Hemp 
and she handed the chalk to Rose. 

“They won’t move till I finish, will they?” asked 
Rose. 

“No, not if you’re quick.” 

Rose stepped toward where twenty-nine and three 
were laid. “I wish my arms were as long as Don- 
ald’s,” she thought as she bent forward. For though 
she was not afraid of being bitten, she did not like the 
idea of the two snakes ready to jump at her, so she 
made her marks quickly and sprang back out of reach, 
nearly upsetting Vocalio in her haste. 

29 + 3 = 32 

Thirty-two spelled the snakes. 

“Wrong,” cried Hemp angrily, snapping her whip. 
“I told you this was multiplication, stupids. Try 
again.” 

The snakes went sullenly back to their places, while 
their companions sent up a low hissing noise of con- 
tempt. 


68 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“Why, see here,” cried Hemp suddenly, she was 
bending over Rose’s work. “It was all your fault, 
child. You put the plus sign instead of the one for 
multiplication and here I’ve scolded my pets all for 
nothing. Thirty-two was the right answer for them 
to give, of course. Come, my beauties. Hemp’s sorry 
she was cross but it was all the stupid girl’s fault. 
Once more, draw, and see you do it right this time,” 
she added crossly, giving the chalk to Rose. 

“Well, I never,” Rose thought to herself, “they are 
clever ones — ^magic, I call it.” 

She made the multiplication sign this time and the 
snakes writhed themselves into 87. 

“Good pets,” said Hemp, fondling them. “They 
can subtract, too, but they’re a bit cross to-day. Peo- 
ple that don’t understand them, like him,” scornfully, 
“get awfully on their nerves and they’re dreadfully 
hurt at my scolding them just now. I think we’d 
better bid Your Majesty good-by if you’re willing.” 

“All right,” said the Maharajah, rising slowly; “I 
think our friends here have had enough. You’re a 
plucky one though,” and he patted Rose on the hair. 
“I’m more than ever sorry those curls aren’t real. 
Have a chocolate?” 


IN THE PALACE 


69 


“No, thank you,” said Rose. But Hemp took the 
handful extended. Then he waved Hemp a good-by 
and started back with Vocaho and the Prime Minis- 
ter. But Rose waited to watch the snakes make their 
way up the tree again and spell out 

GOOD-BY 

“It really wasn’t such bad sport after all,” she 
thought, hurrying after the others. “Good-by, 
Hemp, good-by, snakes. I’m sorry I made the wrong 
sign and I hope you like your new skins. I’ll come 
again some time with Donald. Why, what is the 
matter?” for Vocalio came running back, and catch- 
ing her arm told her to hurry as Donald had just 
fallen into the pool where the crocodiles were. 


XI 


THE CROCODILE POOL 



IHEY’RE not very hungry,” said the Ma- 


harajah, calmly looking around and tak- 


^ ing another chocolate. “I fed them myself 
this morning. Can he swim?” 

“No, only a little,” stammered Rose. She seemed 
unable to move or cry out in her terror. She felt as 
though she were having one of those bad dreams in 
which you know you’ll be all right if you can wake up, 
but somehow you can’t. 

“Well, come along, we’ll see about it,” the Mahara- 
jah said, quickening his pace. 

Donald in the meantime had been having his own 
adventure in company with the Maharajah’s heir. 

He found the courtyard with its fragrance of moist, 
growing things, and its pool of clear, greenish water, 
a fascinating place. 

“Wish I knew how to swim well enough to have a 
try there,” he thought. Then he and the prince went 


70 


THE CROCODILE POOL 71 

to one end of the pool and Donald set his boat care- 
fully in the water. 

“We’ll steer her along the shore,” he said, not know- 
ing whether the prince understood him or not, “and 
we’ll have her make for that corner as her next port,” 
and Donald skillfully sailed his boat, edging along at 
the same time. But the prince had other ideas. 
With a laugh and a shove he sent the boat far out into 
the pool, and Donald, making a hasty clutch at her, 
fell in, and felt the cool water rising about his neck. 

“This is like the swimming pool,” he thought, strik- 
ing out after his boat, “but how heavy my shoes arel” 

After a few strokes he gave it up and turned back, 
surprised to see how far he had left the pool’s edge be- 
hind. Just as he turned, the prince began jumping 
up and down, yelling loudly and pointing at some- 
thing back of Donald, who was too busy to look, as 
he gasped and spluttered and made but little prog- 
ress. 

“Why did I swim so far out?” he thought, groaning. 

Presently he heard a curious, crackling noise and 
turning his head he saw the black form of a crocodile 
that had just snapped his precious boat in two, and 
was now swimming slowly towards him. 


72 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


Donald gave one scream, then forgetting his stiff 
shoes and heavy clothing he struck out bravely, his 
fright giving him added strength. 

“One, two; one, two, — ” he counted. What a 
dreadful swimming lesson this was with the crocodile 
for teacher! He dared not stop to breathe but swam 
on, his eyes fixed on the curbing of the pool till it grew 
to be a white blur before him. 

“One, two ; one — ” Was that something pulling at 
his boot? 

Then came more voices from the shore, yelling 
louder than ever. 

“Why haven’t they sense enough to hold out a stick 
to me,” he thought, looking vainly towards them. 

“Just a few strokes more now. One, two; one, 
two,” but the edge seemed as far away as ever. He 
shut his eyes and struggled on. 

“I can’t keep this up much longer,” he thought to 
himself, struggling wildly. Something was surely 
pulling at his boot this time. Just then came a noise 
like a boiler explosion and a moist and soft object 
touched him on the nose. Opening his eyes, he 
clutched at it frantically, and in another moment he 
was swimg clear of the pool, and found himself hang- 





‘'The Prince began jumping up and down"' 


h 


> ^ . 


73 




74 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


ing on the trunk of the elephant who had brought him 
there ; while the crocodile, with a vicious snap-to of his 
ugly jaws, splashed back into the water. The ele- 
phant shook Donald to and fro a bit, then slung him 
onto his back where he collapsed, a wet, crumply, 
breathless mass, with just wit and strength enough 
left to hang on. 

Out they marched through the courtyard to the en- 
trance way, where Rose stood, looking very pale and 
frightened. She gave a start and a cry of joy as she 
saw her brother’s white face peering down at her, and 
then the elephant caught her in his trunk and tossed 
her up beside Donald, where the children clung to 
each other speechless. 

His Majesty’s Favorite hfted his trunk and trum- 
peted again and then, without waiting for orders or 
driver, hurried out of the palace and down the steps 
with the children on his back, while Vocalio dashed 
madly after them. 

The Maharajah called loudly for them all to stop, 
and the fourteen wives, delighted at the excitement, 
danced out upon the steps, while dozens of slaves ran 
helter-skelter, calling and hallooing, till the children 
had turned a comer, and were out of sight. 


THE CROCODILE POOL 


75 


“Well! He didn’t give us time to say good-by, did 
he?” gasped Rose as soon as she could speak. “Oh, 
but, Donald, I’m glad you’re safe!” 

“So am I,” said Donald. “I was scared. Rose, now 
I tell you, when I saw that ugly black creature tum- 
bling after me. Where were you two at that time ?” 

“Watching Vocalio’s sister’s snakes. And I was 
scared of them at first,” said Rose, her teeth chattering 
partly with excitement and partly because of the pace 
at which the elephant was traveling, — “Oh whoa! 
What is he doing? Is he running away with us, Don- 
ald, do you think?” 

“Whoa, stop,” cried Donald; “there’s the building. 
Rose, we came out at this morning. Stop, stop!” 

But His Majesty’s Favorite had no intention of 
stopping. His trot had become a run, and the chil- 
dren were swept along through a dusty country, hot 
and bare of everything but scattered palms and 
prickly cactus ; on and on, the dust blinding them and 
the wind whistling in their ears. Presently they 
stopped so suddenly that if they had not been holding 
on very tight they would have been thrown to the 
ground. 

“He’s going to lie down,” said Rose. 


76 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


‘‘No, he’s turning round,” said Donald. 

And so he was ! Having had his run out. His Maj- 
esty’s Favorite proceeded with calm dignity to carry 
them back to the city. 

“Oh, if he’d only go a little faster now!” said Rose. 

“He’s giving me plenty of time to dry,” said Don- 
ald, stretching his arms and legs out in the scorching 
sunlight. 

At last they reached the city and saw the palace 
loom up in front of them again, and heard a familiar 
voice call out, — 

“All aboard for train No. 777 on Inside Track! 
Bound for Glogailio land. All aboard, all aboard. 
Ah! here you are at last! Set them down, old fellow! 
Where have you been? I’ve been waiting and wait- 
ing and waiting!” 

“How could we help it?” cried Rose. “Didn’t you 
see the elephant run away with us? But oh, you dear 
thing!” she cried, giving a pat to the friendly great 
shoulder before Vocalio helped her to dismount, “I 
love you for saving Donald, and I don’t care if we are 
all hot and covered with dust. We’ll come to see you 
again, won’t we?” 

“All aboard, all aboard!” shouted Vocalio. “No, 


THE CROCODILE POOL 


77 


no, old chap, I’m not talking about youf^ for His 
Majesty’s Favorite was trying to force his way into 
the passage. 

“He wants to come, too,” cried Rose. “Oh, do 
take him, please !” 

“This is not an animal train,” cried Vocalio indig- 
nantly. “Hi, away with you,” and Vocalio caught 
Rose about the waist just in time to prevent the ele- 
phant from snatching her up in his trunk. Then he 
shoved the two children in front of him into the tunnel. 

“Rim,” he commanded; and they pelted down into 
the darkness towards the light that Vocalio had left 
burning on the rear platform of their car. 


XII 


A MOUSE GIVES AN ENGINEERING LESSON 

T TTELL, well, what a good time we had 
%/\/ though, didn’t we?” said Vocaho, 
" ^ laughing. 

They were seated in the train again, humming 
swiftly through the darkness. 

“You’re sure he didn’t stick fast in the opening, 
Vocaho?” asked Rose. She was thinking of the ele- 
phant who had been so anxious to go with them. 

“Sure,” Vocaho replied. “I waved him hack and 
then I heard shouting outside, and there were half a 
dozen of His Majesty’s slaves hunting him up. I 
saw them take hold of the harness and drag him away 
before I left.” 

“I’m glad,” said Rose relieved, “and you know 
we couldn’t help being late that once, Vocaho, could 
we?” 

“No,” said Vocaho; “I’ll forgive you if you’ll for- 
give me for taking you to see Hemp’s snakes.” 

“Oh, I’m glad I went,” said Rose. “I wouldn’t 
78 


AN ENGINEERING LESSON 


79 


have missed seeing those clever things for anything, 
though I was frightened at first. Donald, do you 
think you could train garter snakes to spell ‘welcome’ 
on one of our trees at home?” 

“I don’t know, it would be a fine way to keep peo- 
ple off the grounds.” 

“Wouldn’t it,” said Rose, laughing. “I wish you’d 
been there too,” she said regretfully. 

“So do I!” 

Vocalio turned to Donald, “And while we were en- 
joying ourselves there where my sister keeps her play- 
mates, you^ poor boy, were swimming around and 
around the pool trying to get away from that ugly 
crocodile.” 

“Yes,” said Rose with a shiver, “oh, Donald, I’m so 
glad the elephant fished you out in time!” 

“So are we all!” said Vocalio heartily. “Wonder- 
ful beast he is! Almost worth falling in to be res- 
cued by a grand old chap like that, isn’t it?” 

“How did he know what the trouble was?” asked 
Donald. 

“Recognized your voice,” said Vocalio. “He’s aw- 
fully fond of children and hates crocodiles. He 
heard you scream and knew what was the matter at 


80 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


once. Useless custom, keeping those ugly beasts 
about!” 

“How did you fall in?” Rose asked Donald. 

“I don’t remember very well. The prince was a 
stupid little fellow and he’d given my boat a shove 
that sent it way out into the pond. I tried to grab 
it, and fell, splash! I didn’t know there were croco- 
diles there.” 

“You should have,” Rose remarked severely; “don’t 
you remember the verse you recited this morning? 
‘Beware of the crocodiles ugly and black!’ ” 

“I’d forgotten,” Donald said humbly. “I’ll be 
more careful next place we go. And, by the way, 
where is that to be?” he asked, turning to his guide. 

“Glogailioland,” replied Vocalio promptly. “I’ve 
a brother there whom I want you to meet.” Then he 
turned to Rose — “Shall I put the curl in your hair for 
you? The fright and heat of the desert has taken it 
all out.” 

“Yes, please,” said Rose, “just this once more, and 
then we’ll let it stay straight,” she added with a sigh. 

“Couldn’t fool the Rajah with your curls, could 
we?” Vocalio chuckled as he heated the tongs. “He 
knew they were too even to be real.” 


AN ENGINEERING LESSON 


81 


Vocalio dexterously twisted the hair over the hot 
iron. “How’s that?” he asked with a final flourish. 

“Beautiful !” she said, “better than before. Oh, Vo- 
calio, how many things you do know!” 

“That comes of being apprenticed to many trades,” 
Vocalio laughed back at her, as he set the barber shop 
to rights. “Always keep busy, and never give your- 
self a chance to think about what you’ll do next, 
just do it! Come along now, we’ll go back to Don- 
ald, and have a talk about Glogailioland, but dear, 
dear, — ” he broke off, looking at his watch, “it’s time 
I began going the rounds of the train with my wares 
this minute. I haven’t been aroimd yet this trip. 
Good-by for a while.” 

“Isn’t he funny?” giggled Rose to Donald as she 
rejoined him in their compartment; “he can’t sit still 
a minute. He’s finished curling my hair now, and 
polishing the car, and fixing up the restaurant. I 
wonder what new game he has on hand?” 

They were soon to find out, for Vocalio shut the 
door of his compartment after him with a bang and 
came staggering down the aisle under a load of maga- 
zines, looking expectantly to right and left. 

"'St. Martin's Booh, Everybody's Good at House^ 


82 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


keeping, Atlantic Munsey, The Christmas Laddie^ s 
Home Companion"^ he called. “Have a copy?” 

Donald chose St. Martin's Book, while Rose picked 
out a sporting magazine from the bottom of the pile. 
“Because it has so many animal pictures,” she ex- 
plained. They settled back to read. 

“Oh, Rose,” said Donald, looking up, “here he 
comes again, with confectionery this time. I can’t 
buy anything more. I’ve only fifteen cents left, but 
it seems as though we ought to spend something when 
he’s giving us such a fine ride free.” 

“Molasses candy, kisses, fine chocolates, fudge, pep- 
permints fresh every hour,” sang out Vocalio, coming 
down the aisle. 

Donald pointed to a ten-cent box. “I’ll take those, 
Vocalio, and then I’m afraid we can’t buy any more, 
I’ve only five cents left, and we may need that where 
we’re going.” 

“I’ve plenty of money,” said Vocalio, thrusting his 
hands into his pockets and laying a pile of coins in 
Rose’s lap. “Help yourselves and buy. I like to 
keep trade lively.” 

“But, Vocalio, wait a minute,” Donald called after 
him as he started for more wares. “I know mother 


AN ENGINEERING LESSON 


83 


wouldn’t want us to take money, not even if we were 
going to put it right back.” 

‘‘She’d let you take back what you had in the first 
place, wouldn’t she?” 

“Why, yes, I suppose so,” said Donald doubtfully, 
“but I just bought a copy of St, Martinis Booh with 
that.” 

“And this for me,” said Rose, holding up her choice. 

“Put them back, and I’ll sell them over to you for a 
penny,” said Vocalio, “then you’ll have, let’s see — ten, 
twenty, thirty-four cents left.” 

“All right,” Donald said doubtfully, producing 
their magazines. 

“It’s just like a game,” Rose whispered to him as 
Vocalio turned and walked to the back of the car. 
“The money is no more than counters that we use in 
stop or lotto and when it’s a new game Mother deals 
them all round again. But I do wish he’d stop play- 
ing train boy and talk to us.” 

“All the latest fiction, stationery and cigars,” bel- 
lowed Vocalio from the end of the car; and presently 
he sauntered along stopping at Donald’s gesture. 

“Oh, Vocalio, can’t you stop and talk now?” said 
Rose after Donald had bought a cigar “for Father,” 


84 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


as he said, and a sensational looking book of fiction. 
“There are lots of questions I want to ask.” 

But Vocalio seemed to have neither eyes nor ears 
for them. After they had transacted their bit of busi- 
ness he went on up the aisle, selling books and cigars 
and postal cards to imaginary passengers, making 
change and cracking jokes with them, then hastening 
back to his room. 

“We’ll have to wait,” said Rose with a sigh, “but I 
do wish he’d hurry up and get through so we could 
talk.” 

Vocalio reappeared in a moment and this time he 
carried a globe very tenderly in his hands. 

“The one authentic map in existence,” he cried, 
“showing the workings of the Tnside Track.’ Got- 
ten out by Vocalio and his pet mouse Midget. All the 
lines of the journey you are on shown and explained. 
Have a look?” 

To the children’s joy he dropped his official voice, 
and sank down on the seat opposite them with the 
globe between his knees. 

“This shows the different routes of the Tnside 
Track.’ ” 

Donald bent over the globe. “I see,” he said, “we 


AN ENGINEERING LESSON 


85 


started at New York, didn’t we? Then we went 
through here to India where we had our exciting 
yisit; now we’re making a short trip down to this 
place. This is a cave, I suppose, isn’t it, Vocalio?” 

“Yes.” 

“Where are we going after the cave?” Rose piped. 

“Clear up here,” Vocalio said, pointing, “nearly to 
the north pole where I’ve a crazy brother who chooses 
to make his home there.” 

“I think I would like to, too,” said Donald, “if I 
had the Tnside Track’ handy to come away in.” 

“Aren’t there any other places we can go to?” Rose 
asked. 

Donald turned the globe carefully about. 

“There are lots of little routes leading close to the 
earth’s surface,” he said, “but they don’t look so in- 
teresting to me as when you dig deep. What are they, 
Vocalio?” 

“They are suggestions of mine that haven’t been 
carried out yet,” Vocalio answered, “but I hope they 
will be some day. I didn’t have much schooling my- 
self but I did learn that a straight line was the short- 
est distance between two points, didn’t you?” 

“Yes,” said Donald, “but Rose hasn’t had it yet.” 


86 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


‘‘I have, too,” said Rose; “Daddy told me.” 

“Well then,” Vocaho went on, “why will grown- 
ups take the curved line on top of the earth when they 
could bore straight through from New York to Chi- 
cago?” 

“Great idea!” said Donald, “I’ll write a book about 
you, Vocalio, when I get back home.” 

“What will you bind it in?” asked Vocalio, laugh- 
ing. 

“I haven’t thought yet,” said Donald, “yellow, like 
your hair, with two round blue eyes staring out from 
under it, and a globe showing the lines of the ‘Inside 
Track.’ But I say,” he broke off, “that would cost 
money, all that tunneling; and money’s hard to get.” 

“If grown-ups want it enough they’ll get it,” Vo- 
calio sagely replied; “they always do if they think a 
thing’s really worth while. And how much more com- 
fortable to travel that way! No dust, no cinders, no 
bad weather and an even temperature. Remember 
the advertisement of the girl in white who’s riding 
round on trains?” 

“Yes,” said Rose, “and you know you remind me 
of her a little.” 


AN ENGINEERING LESSON 87 

‘‘Do I?” laughed Vocalio, “well, I made a new 
rhyme about her.” 

“Miss Phoebe Snow her bag should pack 
And come right down on the Inside Track.” 

“Good,” cried Rose, clapping her hands. 

“But,” said Donald thoughtfully, “Phoebe Snow 
is always looking out of the window and if you look 
out of the window here there’s nothing to see. Per- 
haps she wouldn’t like it.” 

“We wouldn’t ask her then,” said Vocalio rather 
sharply. “Nothing to see indeed,” he muttered, “at 
the rate we travel. I’ll show you scenery enough be- 
fore we’re done, I promise you.” 

“Of course you will, Vocalio,” Rose broke in, fear- 
ing that Donald had offended him. “We love this 
way of traveling and this cosy car and I think your 
idea of running short lines to different points is won- 
derful. I want to take this trip some day,” and she 
bent to point out the route on the globe. 

“Oh,” she cried, drawing back in horror, “it’s noth- 
ing but cheese! Horrid, strong, Edam cheese! 
Donald, how can you handle it so? It will be all over 
you.” 


88 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“I like it,” said Donald, licking his fingers. “Great 
stulf, cheese. How you always do go on about it 
though.” 

“I can’t help it,” said Rose, holding her handker- 
chief daintily to her nose. 

“Well, well, that’s too bad,” said Vocalio good na- 
turedly. “Donald, stop eating those crumbs. That’s 
part of the Desert of Sahara and you’re spoiling it. 
I’ll take it away in a minute. Rose, but I did want to 
show it to you, because it was my idea, all of it. One 
day I bought this cheese for myself. I was always 
fond of cheese, like Donald, and I set it on the table 
in my room, meaning to eat some when I went to bed. 
When I came upstairs that night I found a mouse 
had nibbled a way right through that cheese like this, 
from here to here,” he pointed to the places on the 
globe. “I was awfully cross. I didn’t want to eat 
it then myself. I wouldn’t eat at second table after 
a mouse, no matter how cute a little customer he was. 
I named him Midget and made quite a pet of him. 
Well, as I wouldn’t eat the cheese I began playing 
with it. And as it was round and as I was fond of 
geography at the time, as you are now, Donald, I pre- 
tended it was the globe and commenced drawing maps 


AN ENGINEERING LESSON 


89 


on it. I drew New York here, and India here, and 
this bit of Africa and the country round the Pole. 
Well, the next night the mouse came again, and what 
do you think ! He nibbled a passage straight through 
from where I had marked New York to India or 
Elephant Island. That set me wondering why I 
couldn’t be as smart as a mouse. I was always fond 
of traveling anyway. 'Why can’t I go quietly and 
safely,’ I said to myself, 'and on a way that won’t be 
overcrowded or tedious or anything like that?’ So I 
started the Inside Track — that’s all.” 

"But how did you start it?” asked Donald, "you’re 
not a mouse, and the Earth’s not Edam cheese.” 

"I’m as smart as a mouse anyway,” Vocalio re- 
torted; "who says I can’t do as much?” 

"Perhaps the mouse helped you gnaw a way 
through,” Rose suggested. 

"Perhaps,” Vocalio returned. 

Then he trotted away ahead of them with the 
cheese towards his sleeping room. 

"Wash your hands, Donald,” he called. "Rose 
can’t stand you with that horrid smell about you.” 

"But, Vocalio,” Donald persisted, following him, 
"do tell me really how you got the track put through. 


90 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


It must be an awfully big engineering secret.” 

“It was magic, wasn’t it?” called out Rose. “Any- 
way it’s a secret, as Vocalio says.” 

“To be sure, to be sure,” chuckled Vocalio, “and 
remember, children, a secret is always to be kept.” 
And he disappeared in his room, shutting the door 
behind him. 

“There! Hedging when I ask him a question!” 
grumbled Donald. “Must I really wash my hands? 
Bother! What geese girls are!” And Donald un- 
willingly sought the barber’s shop where he found Vo- 
calio engaged in the same task. 

“Hurry back,” called Rose. “I want you to tell 
me about the cave where we’re going next.” 


XIII 


A NEW PIED PIPER 

^ i ^HE cave,” echoed Vocalio a minute later as 
I he and Donald, shiny and smelling of soap, 
sat down in the compartment again. “I 
call it ‘The Wonderland of the Inside Track.’ ” 

“Wonderland!” cried Rose, joyfully. “Will we 
find Alice there?” 

“Nonsense,” said Donald, laughing. 

“But why is it nonsense, Donald? Alice dropped 
down a rabbit-hole and that might have led to a cave.” 

“To be sure,” Vocalio replied, “well, even if you 
don’t find Alice you’ll find other interesting people 
there, I promise you. And as for animals ! This lit- 
tle girl said she was fond of animals, didn’t she?” 

“Oh, yes,” cried Rose, clapping her hands, “so much 
fonder than I am of people.” 

“Ugh! I don’t know about that,” said Donald, 
thinking of his recent experience with the crocodile; 
“some animals aren’t as nice as they might be.” 

91 


92 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“Well, the elephant was nice anyway. Will there 
be anything here as nice as he was, Vocalio?” 

“Wait and see,” Vocalic replied. Then he stopped 
abruptly and pulled out his watch, “Well, now, if we 
aren’t nearly there!” he cried. “Here are two funny 
little lanterns for you, though I expect Glogailio (he’s 
my brother who lives in the cave, you know) will make 
fun of me for bringing anything so old-fashioned. 
He’ll probably give you the latest thing in electricity.” 

“Glogailio, what a pretty name!” said Rose. “It 
means what he does, doesn’t it?” 

“Yes,” said Vocalic. “He has to, living in a cave. 
Glogailio always had a notion for caves since he was 
a boy. Curious family we were anyway. Hemp 
with her snakes, me with my train, Glogailio living in 
a cave, and another that you’ll meet later in a snow 
bank. Glogailio was fond of something else,” Vo- 
calic went on, “and that was children. So he fitted 
up parts of his cave as a playroom for them in hot or 
rainy weather and has the j oiliest kind of things for 
them to play with. They come down in troops and 
as soon as they get there he straps them into little cave 
suits hke these I’ve brought for you, so that their 
mothers can’t complain of their getting their clothes 


A NEW PIED PIPER 


93 


dirty, and they have the best time that ever was! 
Sometimes he cooks something hot and gives a party, 
and the way he calls the children is by going up to the 
entrance of the cave and blowing a pipe. Ever hear 
the poem about the Pied Piper?” 

“Oh yes,” said Donald, “Mother read it to us last 
Sunday. Don’t you remember, Rose?” 

“Yes, but I didn’t like the Piper, because he let the 
rats and mice tumble into the river.” 

“Oh, he turned them all to water rats and mice, and 
they lived happily under water all the rest of their 
lives,” said Vocalio comfortably; “didn’t you know 
that?” 

“No, I thought that big one who swam back told 
how he nearly got drowned and didn’t like it at all.” 

“Well, you see the piper didn’t turn him into a 
water rat, that was why,” Vocalio explained. “The 
others were all right. He missed the fun, just as the 
little lame boy did who was left outside the mountain.” 

“Yes,” said Rose, “I always felt so sorry for him.” 

“Well,” Vocalio went on, “Glogailio sees that no 
child gets shut out when his pipe blows. He gives 
them plenty of time, and down they come, tumbling 
and dancing, whistling and prancing, as they did in 


94 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


the poem. And if there are any that can’t come so 
fast he waits there at the entrance of the cave for 
them till they’re safely in. Sometimes he blows dur- 
ing school hours, but the teachers got awfully pro- 
voked at that, and sent him a petition asking him 
please to wait till after two p. m. And once he called 
the whole villageful of kids up out of their beds at one 
in the morning. The mothers threatened to stop up 
the cave if he didn’t quit such doings as that, so he’s 
been more careful since.” 

“Doesn’t he ever play to draw the rats and mice and 
give them a good time?” asked Rose. 

“Oh yes, he pipes to the rats and mice. There are 
lots of kangaroo rats here in Australia, little kanga- 
roos, you know, and they’re his special pets. And 
what do you suppose? — ^he’s taught them to bring him 
fresh bedding from the meadows when he wants it. 
They gather the long sweet grass that grows there, 
and carry it in their little tails and come, great bands 
and armies of them, and lay the stuff down in Glo- 
gailio’s corner where he sleeps. Sometimes the big 
kangaroos help, it takes the rats so long.” 

“Are there big kangaroos here, too?” asked Rose 
eagerly. 


A NEW PIED PIPER 


95 


“Yes, indeed, there are all kinds of kangaroos in 
Australia and there’s one especially that’s Glogailio’s 
great pet. Griselda, her name is. She lives down 
in the dark with him all the time until now she’s grown 
quite white. Gentle little thing she is, too, like the 
one in the poem.” 

“She was patient,” corrected Donald. 

“This one is patient and gentle both. But here we 
are, children. All ashore that’s going. Glogailio’s 
my favorite brother and I’m glad to make you ac- 
quainted with him. Put on your cave suits and come 
along.” 

“Mine’s quite tight,” said Rose, strugghng into her 
jumper and overalls. But Donald had no difBculty 
with his. 

“Come along!” Vocalio was dancing up and down 
in impatience. “Turn out the lights. ‘Waste not, 
want not’ is my motto. But I always leave this little 
one burning on the back platform to find our way 
back by.” 


XIV 


INTO THE SUGAU BOVTL, 

T TTE need a light now, don’t we?” said Rose 
\/ \/ as they left their car and groped along 
* " a narrow passage, black as ink. 

“Wait a minute,” Vocalio said, “we can see better 
when our eyes get used to it. Now, look, do you see 
anything?” 

“I see what looks like a thin thread of water in front 
of us, but it doesn’t seem to be wet. What is it, Vo- 
calio?” 

“All my idea,” Vocalio chuckled, “luminous paint. 
I’ve marked all the paths like that. This one running 
to the entrance hall in green, the one across it to the 
Sugar Bowl in yeUow, the one to the play room in red, 
and so on, ever so many more.” 

“Yes,” said Donald, “just the way they do with 
mountain trails.” 

“What’s that?” cried Vocalio sharply. “Why, this 
is my own idea, all of it.” 


96 


INTO THE SUGAR BOWL 97 

“Yes, indeed,” said Rose, pulling at Donald’s 
sleere, “I’m sure I never heard of such a thing and it 
is certainly clever. Where are we going first?” 

“To the entrance hall to meet Glogaiho,” Vocalio 
replied, rather sulky at Donald’s not giving him all the 
credit for his invention. “We’re nearly there,” he 
said, “just a few steps more this way. Ho-ho, ho-ho, 
Glogailio,” he cried, putting his hands to his mouth. 

“Ho-ho, ho-ho, Vocalio!” came back the answer, 
and towards them ran a slight figure, dressed in scar- 
let and twinkling with fights of all colors and kinds. 
Around his forehead was a band of electric fights that 
flashed and went out, and the children were fascinated 
to see that they spelled in tiny letters of electricity: 

“Glogailio 
Bids you welcome 
One and all.” 

The three flashed one after another like the signs on 
Broadway. On his red shirt twinkled thousands of 
little jewels; his belt was gold and so were two broad 
bands on his wrists and ankles that sparkled with 
precious stones. His shoes were shaped like a gob- 
lin’s shoes and he danced along in them as lightly as 
any elf. 


98 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“Welcome, welcome,” he cried, stretching out his 
hands and taking Donald and Rose one on either side. 
“What fresh, rosy ones these are! What are their 
names. Gaily?” 

“Donald and Rose Merton,” said Vocalio, making 
the introduction with gi'eat solemnity. “We have 
just come from a visit to Elephant Island and are on 
our way to Snohaiho’s, at that curious place he chooses 
to live in.” 

“I know,” said Glogailio chuckling, “poor Snohai- 
lio ! You and he never did seem to pull together well. 
Now I like the old boy. I think of spending a sum- 
mer with him some time.” 

“Summer,” groaned Vocalio; “he never has it in 
that cold country of his.” 

“That’s it,” chuckled Glogailio, “that’s why I never 
get around to spending it. But come on, let’s run, 
shall we?” 

Guided by his twinkling lights the children ran 
along in single file. When they had run a good dis- 
tance he stopped suddenly and called back to Vocalio 
who was coming at a slower pace. 

“Set down your lanterns, brother, I want to show 
my visitors the first sight, and your flaring, smelling 


INTO THE SUGAR BOWL 


99 


lanterns spoil the effeet. Now stand right here, chil- 
dren. Good-by to you for a while. But perhaps you 
would like to put me out first?” he suggested, pausing. 

“Put you out,” repeated Rose in astonishment. 
“However could we find our way hack then?” 

“Put my lights out, I should have said,” Glogailio 
explained. “Here are the batteries, one on either 
side, under the flap of this little jacket,” and he drew 
the children’s hands to the spots indicated. Donald 
pressed the right side and they were left in darkness. 
Rose then pressed the button on the left and the circle 
about Glogalio’s head shone out again, but dimly. 
“Only four candle power, to save electricity,” he 
laughingly explained. Then he turned and hurried 
off into the darkness. 

Vocalio came up, chuckling softly and saying, — 
“What did I tell you? I knew Gaily wouldn’t let me 
use my old lanterns here; he always pokes such a lot 
of fun at me. Gaily does. But I don’t mind, he’s my 
favorite brother, you know. Watch now, it’s com- 
ing! Hear the bells?” 

At that minute, as they stood listening, bells began 
to ring. Church bells, they sounded like to the chil- 
dren, and very sweet and clear. Rose felt suddenly 


100 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


homesick. She thought of Sunday morning when she 
was dressed in her best and walking to church with 
Mother. And now, how dreadfully dark it was! 
Then, all at once, a light came shining down from 
overhead and they saw high up in front of them the 
most wonderful tower, rose colored, with spires and 
minarets rising from it. About the spires were curi- 
ous shapes like great white birds with outspread, glit- 
tering wings. The chimes rang and rang, and a mel- 
ody floated out to them as though a flute were playing 
far away. Then slowly the lights went out, and the 
music died away. 

‘‘Oh,” sighed Rose, “how beautiful it was!” 

Presently Glogailio came skipping back. 

‘Xike it?” he asked. 

“Oh yes,” cried both the children. “Only,” added 
Rose, “it was so very beautiful, Mr. Glogailio, that it 
almost made me homesick.” 

“Made you homesick,” cried Glogailio, drawing her 
arm through his, “why, that will never do. We won’t 
play church any more, but find something more cheer- 
ful. Shall I whistle for some children to come down 
and play with you?” 

Rose shook her head. “I’m not used to children,” 


INTO THE SUGAR BOWL 


101 


she replied, ‘T’m more used to animals. If you could 
whistle for the rats and mice now, I should love it.” 

Glogailio clapped his hands together with delight. 
“Did you ever hear anything like that. Gaily?” he 
cried, — “wants the rats and mice to come! Why, 
most little girls are ever so afraid of rats and mice.” 

“They’re foolish,” said Rose. 

“So they are, so they are. Well, I’ll whistle up the 
animals later; but we’ve other sights to see before then, 
haven’t we, Vocalio?” 

“Yes, yes,” nodded Vocalio. Then he leaned over 
and whispered something in his brother’s ear. 

“Yes, of course I remembered,” Glogailio an- 
swered, “all ready then for the Sugar Bowl. Now 
which of you two is the thinnest? That one must go 
first.” 

“I am,” said Donald eagerly. 

Glogailio looked him over critically. 

“I think you are,” he said. “This young lady 
here,” pinching Rose’s cheek, “looks a little bunchy.” 

“Donald’s outgrown his fat,” Rose cried, “he’s shot 
up so tall these last two years. I’ll outgrow mine 
pretty soon, mother says.” 

“Oh, I didn’t say you were fat, just bunchy,” said 


102 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


Glogailio. “Haven’t you a good many frills and 
things on under this?” he asked taking hold of her 
arm. 

“Yes,” said Rose. “Vocalio put it on in a hurry 
right over my dress and my coat and everything, and 
I’m very hot,” she added. 

“I should say so!” and Glogailio helped Rose out of 
the jumper that made the upper part of her cave suit 
and drew off the coat that she was wearing under- 
neath. “I should say so. What do you want of all 
these trappings anyway? This isn’t the North Pole.” 

“Oh thank you, that’s ever so much more comfort- 
able,” said Rose gratefully as Glogailio fastened her 
jumper about her again. 

“I hated to cover up your white dress,” he said, “but 
I make it a rule to keep the children’s frocks clean so 
that their mothers will let them come and play with 
me again. Tell you what though ! When we get to 
the river I’ll put on a little spangled suit that I left 
hanging there. That will shine out from any corner 
of the cave, I promise you. Come along now, here’s 
the entrance. I’ll lead, you come next, Donald, then 
Rose; and Vocalio, you bring up the rear.” 

So saying he dropped on all fours and the lights he ^ 


INTO THE SUGAR BOWL 


103 


was wearing showed them a tiny black passage-way 
not more than two feet wide by two feet high, through 
which they had to creep. Donald did well and Rose, 
too, got along pretty easily, but poor Vocalio came 
very slowly, complaining at every step that he should 
surely stick this time. Glogailio gave a hand to Rose 
and helped her out, and then he and Donald each 
reached in and dragged Vocaho through. 

“Whew!” he whistled, “this will be my last trip to 
the Sugar Bowl, Glogailio; and I’m in luck if I get 
back this time. Dear, dear,” and he sank down ex- 
hausted and began mopping his forehead. 

“He says the same thing every time,” Glogailio 
whispered. “Well, my boy,” he went on aloud, “I’ve 
told you before this that you wouldn’t find it so hard 
reaching my sugar bowl if you didn’t visit your own 
so often.” 

“There you go! Always poking fun at me, Glo- 
gailio.” 

“And another thing, why don’t you take a job witH 
exercise in it, exercise, man, instead of just sitting in 
your little car day and night?” 

“Well, I like that!” Vocalio cried indignantly. 
“Where would you be, I’d like to know, if I didn’t run 


104 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


my train in and out and round about? Who’d charge 
your batteries for you, and keep you up to the latest 
wrinkles in electricity?” 

“True enough, you had me there; I’d have to cut 
and run for home sure enough if you stopped your 
visits. It was only your own good I was thinking of. 
But come now, let’s stop arguing and show our guests 
the sights.” 

“Wait a bit till I get my breath,” Vocalio said. 
“You always let me speak my piece in here, you 
know.” 

“Dear, dear, I forgot! But do cut it short, old 
man, we’ve so much to show the children and descrip- 
tions are so tedious. They always skip them in books, 
I’m sure. Don’t you, now?” he asked. 

“I do,” said Rose ; but Donald added more thought- 
fully, “sometimes I like descriptions, especially if 
they’re about places I’ve seen.” 

“There, what did I tell you?” said Vocalio triumph- 
antly. “Are you all ready?” He got up and Glo- 
gailio moved a few feet away and began arranging 
something at his feet. 

All this time the children had not been able to see 
what was about them as Glogailio’s lights were very 


INTO THE SUGAR BOWL 


105 


dim; but now at the spurt of a match, a pan of rose- 
colored fire glowed in front of them, lighting up the 
Sugar Bowl. They were standing in a little cave 
formed hke an inverted sugar bowl with queer-shaped 
things something like old fashioned sugar tongs hang- 
ing down about them. These tongs looked as if they 
were vainly trying to pick up the white blocks with 
which the floor was paved. 

“How lovely,” cried Rose, clapping her hands. 
But at this moment Vocalio cleared his throat im- 
pressively, waved a hand to insure silence, and began 
to chant rapidly in a loud and even voice, — 

“We have now arrived at the Fairies’ Bower, — ” 
“Oh,” said Rose again, “where are the fairies?” 
But Vocalio silenced her with a look and went on, — 
“A cavern five by nine by four, in the midst of which 
is a pecuharly shaped stalactitic pillar supporting a 
dome, and which may be regarded as the fairies’ tryst- 
ing place.” 

“What’s a trysting place?” asked Rose, “and 
where’s the pillar, Vocaho? I don’t see any.” 

Vocalio only frowned again and went on, waving 
his arms about impressively. 

“There are sparkling diamond walls covered with 


106 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


millions of gems flashing through the gloom, suggest- 
ing the diamond beds on the Ganges, the glories of the 
Kohinoor or — ” 

“Or the spangles mother sewed on my dress the 
time I acted fairy,” cried Rose, laughing and clapping 
her hands. 

“Do be quiet. Rose,” pleaded Donald. “I like 
it.” 

“An enormous mass of stalagmitic formation like a 
suddenly congealed cascade o’erbesprent with bril- 
liants droops from the ceiling, while to the right is a 
water-fall which has trickled from rock to rock in 
graceful concavity. The floor is curiously formed by 
a series of basins, the rims of which are like frilling on 
a petticoat and all the edges are covered by sparkling 
limestone, thinning towards the floor. There is per- 
fection in every segment and in every cell lurks tremu- 
lous light.” 

“There!” cried Vocalio, taking a deep breath and 
dropping into his natural manner, “isn’t that beauti- 
ful? I learned it by heart out of a book I saw in my 
car when the train stopped. It was written about a 
cave, and so I asked Glogailio to let me recite it when 
I came through here.” 


INTO THE SUGAR BOWL 107 

“It wasn’t written about this cave, was it?” Donald 
asked gravely. 

“Why, no,” Vocalio admitted reluctantly, “but how 
in the world did you know? Didn’t you see the dia- 
monds and basins and all?” 

“I didn’t see the stalagmitic formation or the con- 
gealed cascade,” Donald quoted slowly, dwelling on 
the long words. 

“They’re outside,” cried Vocalio, “and I can recite 
it all over again for you when we get there if you like.” 

“Once is enough, old man,” said Glogailio posi- 
tively, while Donald added more politely, — 

“It won’t he necessary, for I’ll remember anyway 
and Rose would never listen.” 

“I couldn’t make out half those long words,” Rose 
complained. “What’s a stalactite anyway — anything 
like these cornucopias ?” 

“There are some stalactites,” pointed Donald, “and 
the stalagmites are the little cones that stand up, 
aren’t they, Glogailio?” 

“Yes.” 

Rose danced over into the farther corner. “Oh, 
look at the lovely birthday cake, Donald, hanging 
from the end of this thing, whatever it is.” 


108 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


‘'How did you know about its being my birthday?” 
asked Donald of Glogailio. 

“I expected Vocalio before long, and I always know 
it’s some kid’s birthday when he comes, so I got one 
of my cave-cake specials ready. The cake is part 
silver and part gold and part marble and filled with 
rubies and emeralds, and the frosting is some of that 
stalagmitic formation that you’re so fond of talking 
about,” and Glogailio laughingly clapped Donald on 
the shoulder. 

“What a pretty basket it’s in,” Rose came closer. 
“And there’s a silver knife stuck in it, all ready for 
cutting.” 

“Yes, that’s some of my own handicraft,” said Glo- 
gailio, “that silver basket. I hammered out the silver 
and made the chain it’s hanging by. Cut it, Donald, 
and give Vocalio and me little pieces and you two eat 
the rest.” 

“Can we eat it if it’s made of silver and gold and 
marble?” asked Rose. 

“Try and see,” said Glogailio encouragingly. So 
Donald cut the cake. Only he insisted on cutting it 
into equal parts, — “for these pieces are plenty big 
enough for us,” he said. They found it most deli- 


INTO THE SUGAR BOWL 109 

cious. Its colors were white, yellow and pink. And 
if Rose thought the rubies tasted much the flavor of 
the cherries that her mother sometimes put into the 
ice cream, and the tiny green squares like the citron 
she helped to shce for mince pies, instead of emerald 
and ruby flavor, she didn’t suggest such a thing to 
Glogailio but remarked how juicy and delicious the 
rubies were. 

‘‘My special brand of cake,” said Glogailio, smiling. 

By the time the cake was finished the fire was flick- 
ering and at the last mouthful it went out, leaving 
only the bright band: 

“Glogailio 
Bids you welcome 
One and all.” 

“Oh dear, oh dear,” groaned Vocalio as Glogailio 
called to him to follow them on the way out. “Why 
did you give me anything to eat in here, Glogaiho? 
I never thought, and now this time I surely, surely 
will stick fast. You’ll have to leave me here till I 
get thin,” he cried, sinking dejectedly upon the floor. 

“Oh, Vocalio, then what would become of us?” cried 
Rose. 

“Nonsense, old man,” cried Glogaiho cheerfully. 


110 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“we’ll pull you through! Come now, take a long 
breath, and keep letting it out slowly all the way 
along, and you’ll find you go easily enough. He’s al- 
ways just like this,” he whispered to the children. 
“But he wouldn’t miss the Sugar Bowl and the birth- 
day cake and the chance of reciting all that flowery 
description for anything.” 

They decided to arrange things differently this 
time and Glogailio went first, Vocalio following him, 
while Rose came after and Donald brought up the 
rear. Rose found her position most awkward. For 
Vocalio groaned at every step and was always push- 
ing against her shoulders with his feet, and at times 
refused to try to move, while Donald back of her kept 
tapping on the soles of her shoes and calling to her to 
“get on.” It was very black, too, with Glogailio so 
far ahead and she felt as though the walls of the hole 
through which they were creeping would surely tum- 
ble down about them. At last Vocalio was dragged 
out, Glogailio held out a hand, and she jumped up, 
happy to be able to stand and stretch herself again. 

“Really, that was a close call, Vocalio,” said Glo- 
gailio severely. “I was quite anxious about those chil- 
dren because I’d let them come behind you. I can’t 


INTO THE SUGAR BOWL 


111 


take you through there any more imtil you diet a lit- 
tle. If you want to visit the Sugar Bowl you must 
get into training and not spend so much time in that 
confounded restaurant of yours. You must keep out 
of it from the time you leave New York till you reach 
here.” 

“Oh,” cried both the children, “what a pity that 
would be! WeVe had such fun in that restaurant, 
chatting over our meals, haven’t we, Vocalio?” 

“Yes, we have,” said Vocalio. “Remember the 
cups of hot chocolate and whipped cream, Donald?” 

“Yes, and the chicken patties and puff paste,” cried 
Donald eagerly. 

“And the ice cream bird,” chimed in Rose. 

“Huh, I wonder you didn’t all stick fast,” said Glo- 
gaiho contemptuously. “That’s the only thing I have 
against your Inside Track, Vocalio. Meals at all 
hours when it’s distinctly known that meals ought only 
to be at certain very fixed and set hours and those 
not too close together. But never mind, we’re safely 
through this time, and now I’ll take you on a trip 
that will get you in better condition. Come along, up 
the chffs and down to the river. This way!” 


XV 


GRISELDA 

‘ I '^HERE’S our path,” said Glogailio, point- 
I ing. “It’s painted red. That was a good 
idea of Caily’s, wasn’t it? Nice old boy he 
is. Where would we all be without him?” 

“Indeed, w^ don’t know,” cried the children, which 
was true enough. 

“You’re gbod climbers, aren’t you?” said Glogailio, 
giving a hand to Rose. “Come along, then; up we 
go!” 

“Oh, Glogailio, look!” said Rose, pulling at his arm. 
“What’s that white figure sitting up so straight there 
with her arms folded on her chest?” 

“Why, that’s Griselda,” cried Glogailio. “Come 
here, my pet.” He whistled, and the figure hopped 
demurely towards them. “Let me introduce you to 
Griselda,” said Glogailio. “Griselda, give your paw 
to Donald, and to Rose who is particularly anxious 
to make your acquaintance.” 

112 


GRISELDA 


113 


To the great delight of the children Griselda did as 
she was told and then hopped a little way up the path 
they were to take and turned expectantly, waiting for 
them to follow. 



‘‘So that’s a kangaroo,” said Rose. ‘T had no idea 
they were so tame and so pretty.” 

“She’s my especial pet, you see,” Glogaiho ex- 
plained, “and she’s a small-sized kangaroo. They 
have lots of them hereabouts. But come along; she’s 
waiting for us to follow.” 


114 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


The children thought they had never known any- 
thing so exciting as that climb up the rocks. Glogailio 
led. The wreath about his head was unusually bright. 
Vocalio, more leisurely, came last. Once or twice 
there were rough steps chopped out of the stone and 
once, when the path ran along close to a very steep 
precipice, there was a railing that sparkled in the dark- 
ness as though the rope were made of silver. How- 
ever fast Glogaiho and the children went, Griselda, 
sure-footed and at home, went faster, leaping from 
stone to stone without minding the pathways. “Look 
at her up there,” cried Donald. Griselda was posing 
herself prettily on a cliff overhead. She jumped off 
as they spoke and disappeared, only to reappear closer 
to them on the regular trail. 

When they had clambered up for quite a while 
Glogailio stopped suddenly. “Here we are,” he said. 
The children joined him and found that the path 
ended, disappearing over the edge of a great cliff up 
which they had been climbing. 

“Glogailio, are we going down there?” cried Rose. 

“Certainly. Look over and see.” 

Rose looked down and could see a glittering silver 
ladder fastened against the wall. 


GRISELDA 


115 


“Safest thing in the world,” Glogailio reassured 
her. “I’ll go first and help you down.” With this 
he dropped over the edge. 

Rose found her legs too short. She lay down half 
over the cliff, clinging desperately to Donald’s hand 
and waving her foot around wildly in space without 
being able to touch the ladder. Glogailio caught it 
gently and guided it to the place and after that she 
climbed nimbly down. 

Donald and Vocalio joined them in a few minutes 
and the children began looking about delightedly. In 
front of them lay a tiny winding stream, so clear that 
Rose, taking a step forward to peer at the star flowers 
on the bottom, found herself ankle deep in the cool 
w^ater. 

“Oh,” she cried, stepping back with an excited 
laugh, “I didn’t see it. I was looking right through 
it and across it at the trees growing and at the darling 
little boat all ready for us, and thinking what an ex- 
citing thing an underground river is. Isn’t it, Don- 
ald?” 

“Trees?” said Donald. “What do you mean?” 

“They do look like trees over there,” said Rose, 
pointing. “I suppose they would be hard and cold 


116 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


if we felt of them. And what are those things that 
look like clusters of grapes growing below them? I 
believe you’ve painted it, Glogailio, to look like real 
river banks, haven’t you?” 

“No, no,” said Glogailio, shaking his head. “It’s 
natural, every bit of it. I wouldn’t even let Vocalio 
touch it up with luminous paint, though he wanted to 
daub the inside of his flowers. But that’s the beauty 
of caves. There’s everything in them that you want 
to see and more things than you could discover if you 
lived here a lifetime. Each flower and star are dif- 
ferent one from the other and they are always here 
day after day waiting for you — not here one day and 
gone the next, like your open air flowers. I can’t see 
why more people don’t live in caves,” he cried, warm- 
ing to his subject. “It’s so much better than up- 
stairs. Come now for a row on the river, and I’ll 
pole you through to my playground where you’ll find 
Griselda. She doesn’t come down this way.” 

The httle boat that Rose had spoken of was shaped 
hke a gondola with a prow of silver and all richly 
ornamented with jewels. 

“I hate to get into it with these old clothes on,” 
said Rose, looking ruefully at her cave suit. “Isn’t 


GRISELDA 117 

this where you said you had a little dress ready for 
me?’* 

Glogailio ran lightly up the bank and returned, 
shaking something in his hand that made Rose dance 
with delight when she saw it. It was a pale yellow 
dress, long and straight, and sewn all over with jewels 
like Glogailio’s suit. Glogailio untied her cave suit 
and she slipped it off gladly and put on over her own 
white dress the lovely little gown that a cave princess 
might have worn. Then he fastened a gold scarf to 
her head with a circle of jewels, and she looked very 
lovely. 

“You and I will take back seats, Donald,” said 
Vocalio, “and let these two pose up in the prow. 
We’ll get out of the way back here.” And Vocalio 
seated himself and took the pole in his hand. Glo- 
gailio helped Rose to a seat in front. Donald sat 
meekly by Vocalio, looking with admiration at Rose 
who seemed changed and grown into a young lady. 

Vocalio poled lazily along. They drifted about 
close to the banks, and Glogailio snapped off two little 
things like icicles that were hanging down and told the 
children to take them home to remember the cave 
by. 


118 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“They look good enough to eat, don’t they?” said 
Rose, and she sucked at hers, pretending that it was 
a cone of ice cream. 

“But princesses like you ought not to eat ice cream 
cones,” teased Donald. 

“No, I suppose not,” said Rose, and she put it down 
and sat up, playing her part. And then Vocalio 
called a loud halloo and the Lady Echo in the cave 
called back again and Glogailio played a lovely tune 
on his pipe that he took out of his pocket, — “his 
really, truly Pied Piper Pipe,” as he explained to 
Rose. The playing was so sweet and plaintive that 
it almost made Rose homesick again, so he stopped 
and told Vocalio to scull faster. 

“And if you don’t know the way through the open- 
ing, old boy,” he cried, “hand the oar up to me, and 
I’ll paddle.” 

Vocalio surrendered the oar and Glogaiho sent the 
boat gliding swiftly through the water close up under 
some great frowning cliffs. 

“Oh, Glogailio,” cried Rose in terror. 

“It’s all right,” he called reassuringly, and he 
paddled closer still. And then straight ahead of them 
in the bank Rose saw a tiny opening just big enough 



On the Underground River 










• t 


'r 




■ -S . S 4 



■' \ 


■ . 1 . 
i 

f 






f ^ 

f ^ 




\v ‘^.5 




"y I .< *’•■ 


• 




r f ^ 4 " 


r' : *-T! 


*•1) 


^•4 


I ^ 



■ ‘ 


,1 ^- -'- ; 


•■*1 


I 


% V ^ 

t « 


^ «» 


>*!t ’V 






Ev , ^ ■ s^iPfv ^‘- ■• ' ■'- ^ - a '.■•-i^ ' . ^ fH 

C">iv. . . s* • ■ ;*'"a 

., ^^ ■"-,-;■ >• .iS 

• .-v^ * *, V . > «•• I • ♦ • > - - . • > 



* 

^ - 


-5 


*f » - - 




. \v^'V ‘ 


if; 

■!) 


•• i^- T: 




^ 


a f>#.’'. 

A ' ;' ‘ :r‘ ' ■*" ' ■■'^' 

. j'£. >" <. ' 

A' 


^ 4. 


4 * 


>1 



•■' ' ''W 


1 





•* ^ 




I ^ 

•- • ' jr 

?'V« ' ^ 

^yo.. 


' C '}' f > ^"'r V -1 


*1 ^ , 
• Bit*’-'# , f 


% / 


0 , 


•#r 

rij 


- Vh i 1'^ • 

‘I 



if j ^ ^ ’i - 




•# 


i.,v 


A > , -- 

iV^'- 

1% '%■;'' t*-'- 

£ ■ * •; * , •^ 

“ 2#^ ..*♦ ! - > -ti' .#i 

^ ‘'v ‘ V ’* 'fi . 
’•M ^ ^ ‘ * V * i' 




^ » 


'M 


> 1^,;. ^ 
« • ^ - A f'' ^ 


■'^■■^ ri ,» «:•/ ^■' 

• , ■■ '■ ’s,..'-i^T,T 



L^:. 




GRISELDA 


119 


to push the prow of the boat through. Into this 
Glogailio steered. The river was left behind them in 
a moment and they were in a tiny channel with great 
black cliffs on either hand. Glogaiho shut off the 
light around his head and told Rose to look up. She 
did so, and to her surprise saw that there were stars 
shining down on them. 

“Why, we’re under the open sky,” she cried, but 
Donald thought that he knew better. ‘T think Voca- 
lio must have put those stars in with some of his pa- 
tent paint; didn’t you, Vocalio?” 

“Never mind; they’re beautiful,” said Rose, “and 
do look, we’re coming out! How gay it is!” 

“This is my play room,” said Glogailio happily, giv- 
ing the boat a push that sent it out into a little lake of 
water; “glad you hke it. Welcome! Welcome, one 
and all!” 


MONEY TO BURN 


HE playroom looked very gay as Donald had 



said. It was lighted by seven huge electric 


lamps that hung from the ceiling and formed 
a star. The little lake was shaped like a half-circle 
extending for fifty feet at its farthest point, and about 
the whole Glogailio had built a silver embankment. 
“A swimming pool for the kids,” he explained, “five 
feet deep and clear as crystal.” 

He pushed the boat up to the shore and the chil- 
dren stepped out, the brothers following. 

“See the little pickaxes,” cried Donald. “I sup- 
pose that’s where you let the children play at mining.” 

Glogailio nodded. “Yes, and if they find a bit of 
silver — for there’s quite a vein of silver runs through 
here — ^we take it over to the corner that we call the 
mint and melt it and pound it and mould it into shape. 
Then I take a flash-light pictiu-e of the child who 
found the piece and stamp her head on the coin. I 


MONEY TO BURN 


121 


say, Donald, run and find a bit of metal and I’ll take 
a flashlight of Rose in that head dress and stamp it 
on a fifty-cent piece and give it to you for a souvenir. 
How would you hke that?” 

Rose clapped her hands and Donald and Vocalio 
hurried off to look for silver nuggets. 

“That’s a swing over there, isn’t it?” asked Rose. 
“The rope looks like twisted silver. Are those stal- 
actites you’ve hung it from?” 

“Yes.” 

“There comes dear Griselda,” Rose exclaimed as the 
kangaroo came bounding along. “And now, Glogai- 
lio, won’t you whistle for the rats and mice to come 
tumbling down?” 

“Wait till I’ve made you the coin,” he answered. 
“Here come Donald and Vocalio with the silver. 
Vocalio, quick, rim to the forge and melt it down, and 
I’ll take the flashlight. Stand still. Rose, and don’t 
shut your eyes if you can help it. Now, one, two, 
three!” 

Glogailio had arranged the camera as he talked and 
at the spurt of a match there came a blinding flash of 
light that almost made Rose jump. But she was care- 
ful not to shut her eyes. 


122 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


‘‘Play by yourselves now while Vocalio and I turn 
out the coin,” said Glogailio, and the two brothers 
went together, leaving Donald and Rose alone. 

“I’d have liked to have helped,” said Donald, look- 
ing after them, “but I guess they wanted it to be a 
surprise. How jolly it is here. Rose, isn’t it? Let’s 
walk down to the water’s edge again.” 

They went to the bank of the artificial lake and 
found Griselda drinking from it. They started mn- 
ning towards her and calling, but the kangaroo, 
startled at the noise, bounded lightly and easily across 
the lake. The children stopped in astonishment. 

“Oh,” cried Rose, “how beautifully you jump! but 
come back here, Griselda; we didn’t mean to frighten 
you. We wouldn’t hurt you for the world.” 

Rose spoke pleadingly and Griselda, seeing that her 
fears were foolish and recognizing the children as 
friends of her protector, edged her way back around 
the lake in little leaps, until she was within a couple 
of yards of the children. There she stood facing 
them, her front paws folded again across her breast. 

“How cunning she looks that way,” said Rose. 
“Griselda, dear, come and let me stroke you, and oh, 
I wish you’d give me a ride across the lake on your 


MONEY TO BURN 


123 


tail, won’t you?” Griselda hopped near so that Rose 
was able to touch the soft head and look right into the 
gentle eyes. 

‘T should just love to ride across on your tail,” said 
Rose pleadingly. “Griselda, don’t you think you 
could sit still long enough for me to get on?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous. Rose,” said Donald, “of course 
you couldn’t sit on her tail. It isn’t strong enough. 
Besides, think of the borrowed dress you have on.” 

“I don’t beheve any little girl ever rode on a kan- 
garoo’s tail before,” Rose went on, not heeding this 
last remark. “I should love to be the very first one 
to do it. I was the only child who fed a camel at 
the circus, Donald, you know I was, and I like to do 
dangerous things with animals, and do look, Donald, 
how straight she’s holding it out! Just as if she ex- 
pected me to sit on it.” 

Griselda hopped still nearer to Rose who made one 
little jump and sat herself sideways on the kangaroo’s 
tail, clutching it firmly in front with both hands. 
Griselda glanced back, grunted with astonishment, 
and gave a wild kick and leap into the air, shaking her- 
self as she jumped. If Rose had been astride she 
could probably have held her seat, but the long. 


124 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


straight gown prevented that; and finding that she 
was hanging only by her hands she let go in time to 
drop into the pool of water where she fioated quietly, 
her glittering dress spreading and flashing in the light. 

'‘Glogailio! Vocalio! Help!” cried Donald. 
“Rose is in the water!” He ran to the boat, jumped 
in and pushed off; but before he reached his sister, 
Glogailio had leaped into the pool and laying one of 
Rose’s hands on his shoulder, swam with her ashore. 

“Well, well,” he said gayly, “what’s all this that’s 
been going on?” 

“I tried to make Griselda carry me across the lake,” 
said Rose, gasping a little, “but I lost my seat and 
had to let go and fell in. I thought it was better to 
fall into the water than to drop onto the hard stones. 
I didn’t mind the lake much, because I knew there 
weren’t any crocodiles there,” she added. 

Glogailio laughed with delight. “You are a plucky 
one,” he cried. “Griselda, come here ! What did you 
mean by objecting when this young lady wanted to 
use you as a ferry boat, or aeroplane rather? I’ll get 
her in better training for you. Rose, next time you 
come. We must warm ourselves now by the fire and 
hang up this frock to dry.” 


MONEY TO BURN 


125 


“Oh, Glogailio, I hope I haven’t spoiled it?” Rose 
cried, penitently. “I ought not to have done it when 
I was wearing borrowed clothes, and such beautiful 
ones as these. Will it tarnish or rust, do you sup- 
pose?” 

“Not a bit ; not a bit ! Best silver thread and woven 
with silk, and the jewels don’t mind the water. No 
indeed, never let the clothes you’re wearing interfere 
with a good time. That’s my motto. Come now, 
there’s a jolly fire at the forge, and your coin is all 
made.” 

They found Vocalio walking nervously up and 
down, opening and shutting his watch and apparently 
oblivious to everything about him. 

“I fell into the pool,” said Rose, shaking herself 
and laughing. “Guess you’ll have to curl my hair 
again, Vocalio, to dry it,” but Vocalio shook his head. 

“Foolish goings on,” he complained. “Pools, 
pools, everywhere you go 1 I wonder which it will be 
that takes a plunge next time? Not me, I promise 
you, for I don’t go ashore again. Home’s the best 
place, and my car’s where I belong. I hate to be 
away from it above an hour or so. Always afraid it 
will take it into its head to go without me some day. 


126 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


Now, if you’re on a train you never have to bother 
about catching a train, and that’s a lot of worry saved. 
Can’t you be getting through, Glogailio, and letting 
us make our way back? We’ve a long ride to Snohai- 
lio’s, you know,” — and having finished this long 
speech, Vocalio began again walking nervously back 
and forth. 

“Would the train really go without us?” asked Rose 
anxiously in a whisper of Glogailio, but he shook his 
head and laughed. “Just his nonsense. Why, Voca- 
lio is the Inside Track. It wouldn’t be anywhere 
without him, but that’s the way he always talks. 
Funny old chap,” he added aloud, clapping his 
brother on the shoulder, “always in a hurry to be gone ! 
Here’s your coin. Rose. Isn’t it a beauty?” 

“I do look like a princess,” said Rose as she and 
Donald inspected the silver coin. It was the size of 
a fifty-cent piece and had Glogcdlioland stamped on 
the back, and Rose’s face in the long head-dress on 
the face of it. “I shall love to have this,” she said, 
and gave the coin to Donald to keep safe for her in 
his pocket. Then she took off the princess dress and 
found she wasn’t very wet underneath. “The water 
didn’t seem to get through at all,” she explained; and 


MONEY TO BURN 127 

a few minutes by the great roaring fire of the forge 
made her warm and dry as ever. 

“What do you find to burn here underground?” 
asked Donald. “Wood must be hard to get.” 

“Money mostly,” Glogailio answered casually, 
throwing on a handful of silver. 

“Oh,” said Rose, looking on with wondering eyes. 
“I’ve often heard Father talk about people who had 
money to burn, but I never saw one before. You 
must be very rich, Glogailio.” 

Glogailio looked about him carelessly, — “There are 
seventeen millions’ worth of rubies about this play- 
room,” he said, “and a few diamonds, to say nothing 
of the silver, — but what do I care for it all? I’m 
happy, I am, and that’s better than wealth untold. I 
sleep on straw, too, in spite of all the money I might 
have; and that reminds me, I need new fresh bedding 
for to-night, and besides, I promised you to play my 
pipes for the rats and mice. You want to see them, 
don’t you?” 

“Yes, indeed,” said Rose eagerly. 

“Well, I’ll play for them, then, and when they’ve 
been and gone you can paddle these children back, 
Vocalio, while I play for the other kids to come. But 


128 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


get this young lady well out of the way of the Aus- 
trahan boys and girls. She isn’t ‘used to children,’ 
you know. Here goes for the rats and mice!” and 
he bounded away. 

He clambered up some steps that led far up the 
cave, then passed through an opening and was out of 
sight. But presently the music of his pipes came 
floating down to them, a gay tinkling melody that 
made Donald laugh and caper about, and before many 
minutes there came a hurrying and skurrying and 
scratching and squeaking, and the mice and the rats, 
the kangaroo rats and the kangaroos, big and small, 
came tumbling down the cliffs, the mice and rats trip- 
ping and running, the kangaroos going boldly, with 
great bounds, down the face of the rocks. And each 
little rat carried a bundle of grass in its tail, as Voca- 
lio had said, and dumped it down right in the corner 
imtil there was enough for a soft bed. 

Then the children pelted them with some crumbs 
and bits of cake that Vocalio, the ever ready, produced 
from somewhere about him. And what a scrambling 
and squeaking there was, and how Rose jumped up 
and down in delight as she watched the medley of 
gray forms, big and little. The pipes blew louder 


MONEY TO BURN 


129 


while they scampered back again, and Glogailio stood 
playing until all had passed. “The end of the Rat 
Brigade,” he called. Then he ran down and said 
good-by to both the children. 

“Brother Vocalio wants to go,” he explained, “and 
besides, the Children’s Brigade comes next. I’ve 
promised the kids here a special treat this afternoon. 
But come again. The latch string’s always out and 
Glogailio’s always ready with his welcome. Are you 
sure you can find your way back, brother?” 

“I should think so,” Vocalio cried contemptuously, 
and he helped the children into the boat. “We’ll 
watch at the river opening a minute,” he said as they 
pushed off, “and see the children coming. It’s a 
pretty sight.” 

They paddled to the entrance of the channel and 
held the boat there while Glogailio played the sweetest 
tunes he knew, and presently came the laughing of 
many voices and the pattering of many feet, and down 
through the opening the children came pouring. 
School children with their books under their arms, 
little girls with their dolls, barefooted ones from the 
fields, white faces, brown faces. All were romping 
noisily and happily together and clinging, as many 



‘Down through the opening the children came pouring’ 


130 



MONEY TO BURN 


131 


as could, around Glogailio’s knees. He stood up 
among them and waved his hand to Donald and Rose 
in good-by. Then Vocalic pushed the boat back into 
the channel and the gay scene was shut out. It was 
very, very black, but Rose held Donald’s hand tight 
and looked overhead at the cheerful stars, and pres- 
ently they reached the river again. There they found 
the lanterns that Vocalic had left hanging on the 
ladder. 

It was the work of a few minutes to climb up and 
retrace their steps along the cliffs down to the lumin- 
ous painted path that led finally to their car. The 
little light on the rear platform shone a welcome to 
them and the children climbed happily aboard, sur- 
rendering their lanterns to Vocalic as they did so. 

“Home again,” cried Vocalic, turning on the lights 
and looking like his old, cheerful self. “Now, after 
IVe started the car, shall we go and have one of those 
‘meals at all hours’ that Glogailio is so severe 
about?” 

“Yes,” cried both the children. Vocalic turned the 
crank and there was a whirr and a sound of revolving 
wheels. 

“To stay at home, dear heart, is best,” sang out 


132 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


Vocalic. “How about a cup of hot chocolate after 
that chilly cave, and after your dip in the river. Rose. 
That’s pretty good, eh? I thought so. Here we go, 
thenl” And they hurried away. 


XVII 


THE INSH)E TRACK AGAIN 


i i 



DU’VE met Glogailio. He’s my favorite 
brother, as I told you,” said Vocalio. 
“Now, I’m taking you to where the great- 


est crank of the family lives. Snohailio’s his name, 
and you can guess from it what he likes.” 

“Snow and hail,” said Donald thoughtfully. 
“Well, I like snow, too. Perhaps we shall be 
friends.” 

“Perhaps you will,” said Vocalio somewhat doubt- 
fully, “if he notices you, that is; he isn’t any more 
fond of people than Rose here.” 

“He isn’t like you, then, Vocalio, is he?” asked 
Rose. 

“He looks like me, but that isn’t being like me. I 
can’t deny that we do look about as much alike as two 
pine cones. There are differences, though, you’ll see. 
His hair turns down and mine turns up, and he’s fat- 
ter, if anything; has to be to keep him warm, you 
know. He’s a nice chap,” Vocaho admitted rather 


133 


134 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


grudgingly, ‘‘but a bit weak up here,” tapping his 
forehead significantly, “or else why should he be liv- 
ing all by himself in a place like that?” 

“All by himself?” asked Rose incredulously. 

“Not a living soul to speak to from one year’s end 
to the next. Nothing but a parcel of dumb brutes 
that he makes as much fuss about as if they were his 
own flesh and blood.” 

“But how did he come to live up there in the first 
place?” asked Donald. 

“Because some animals were there that he was so 
fond of?” hazarded Rose. 

Vocalio shook his head. “No, it wasn’t that in the 
beginning, though he is crazy about the animals now. 
It was because he was so fond of ice and cold weather. 
That began when he was only five weeks old. My 
mother put him out to sleep one day after a great big 
blizzard, worst we’d ever had, and when she went to 
look at him she found he’d picked up some snow that 
had dropped down from the roof onto his cover-lid, 
and had rolled it up with his little mittened fingers 
into the smallest snowball you ever saw and was suck- 
ing it and cooing away as delighted as you please. 
She named him ‘Snohailio’ after that, and she 


THE INSIDE TRACK AGAIN 135 


always dressed him in fur whenever she could, with 
fur-trimmed boots and trousers. Silly, I called it. 
Glogailio was for dark places and electric lanterns 
and jewels and such, so he took to caves. I was for 
warmth and speed and flurry and excitement and I 
took to trains ; but Snohailio was different from either 
of us, always for cold and snow and quiet and that 
shut-in feeling they give you. Why, the first time 
that boy ever ran away from home, where do you think 
he was found?” 

“Under a snowbank?” hazarded Rose. 

“Fishing through the ice on the river?” suggested 
Donald. 

“No, no,” said Vocalio, shaking his head. “I for- 
got to mention that it was summertime, a roasting hot 
day, and as for Ashing, Snohailio never cared to kill 
animals, it wasn’t in him. No, he was hiding inside 
an ice cart.” 

“But you said he ran away, Vocalio,” corrected 
Rose. “He couldn’t have run very fast on an ice 
cart, they go so slowly.” 

“Nor very far,” said Donald, “they stop so often.” 

“He didn’t go very fast,” Vocalio agreed, “but he 
did travel a good way on it, for he slipped up the steps 


136 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


of the ice cart when it was through its rounds and was 
heading for home. When the cart stopped and the 
driver went to the back to see how much ice was left, 
there sat Snohailio on a big block of ice, licking the 
other blocks that were all around him with his little 
pink tongue and having a perfectly beautiful time. 
The driver was a fat, good-natured chap, and he 
laughed and laughed. Snohailio looked so droll. He 
lifted him out though telling him he’d get rheumatism 
if he stayed there, but that he’d give him a job and 
let him ride round on the driver’s seat with him if he 
wanted. Snohailio was ever so pleased and after that 
you’d see them every day — ^the big fat ice man and 
the little boy sitting side by side. Snohailio used to 
help by washing the sawdust from the big pieces, and 
he’d always sliver up the little bits that were broken 
off and give them to the children that came around. 

‘‘That went on until he was nearly grown, and then 
one year a young lady from Boston came to our town 
who had been working in Dr. Grenfell’s mission in 
Labrador. She talked and showed pretty pictures of 
the snow and the ice and all the wild dogs and rein- 
deer, and every time she gave a show Snohailio would 
be there, passing round the hat for her when she got 


THE INSIDE TRACK AGAIN 137 


through. One night she asked Snohailio if he 
wouldn’t like to go along with her party that was 
starting in the spring. My, but Snohailio was 
pleased! My mother was fairly sick about it, but 
she’d spoiled him all his life and she had to let him 
go. ‘You stay with me, Vocalio,’ she said, and as 
the Inside Track wasn’t finished then, I stayed. She 
used to set me in front of a mirror where she could 
see me double. ‘Now, it seems as though I had Sno- 
hailio back again,’ she’d say. She never could tell us 
apart.” 

“Snohailio’s letters were fairly crazy with joy as 
soon as he got up North. ‘Remember your old cat in 
a bed of catnip?’ he wrote my mother. ‘Well, that’s 
just the way I acted on the first ice fields I saw. I 
ran and slid, and then my feet fiew out from under 
me. But I didn’t care, I just lay on my back and 
shouted, waving my arms in the air.’ He hated be- 
ing at sea and said he wasn’t coming back that way. 
‘If I can’t walk or float down on a cake of ice with a 
Polar Bear to keep me warm. I’ll stay here,’ he wrote. 
Well, the next thing we knew about Snohailio, we 
had a letter from the mission saying he’d moved on 
up North. 


138 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


“ ‘Too many people around Dr. Grenfell’s way,’ he 
wrote. ‘There were mothers’ meetings and parties 
and goings all the time. I couldn’t stand it and 
wanted to be alone, so I tramped up here. Besides, 
I’m going to live under the shadow of the North Pole 
some day,’ he added.” 

“Is he?” asked Rose. 

“You’ll see when you get there,” said Vocalic, 
“though there isn’t sun enough there for a big um- 
brella to cast any shadow, let alone such a slim and 
slippery thing as the North Pole. Well, Snohailio 
stayed there and settled down to the life. He’s got 
to be quite a tamer of animals. The beasts all come 
around his hut and he feeds and plays with them, and 
if once in a while he has to go afield to shoot something 
for food or covering or fuel, you know it nearly breaks 
his heart. He always wears a little band of crepe on 
his sleeve, half an inch wide for a walrus, and one 
inch wide for a seal.” 

“But seals are smaller than walruses, aren’t they?” 
asked Rose. 

“Yes, but Snohailio loves them best, and that makes 
the difference. Well, that’s enough about him, I 
think. You’ll see him when you get there and can ask 


THE INSIDE TRACK AGAIN 139 


him all the questions you like about his life. Now, if 
you’ve finished supper, you’d better get to bed. W e’ve 
quite a run before us.” 

He led the way back to where their little compart- 
ments were made ready for the night. Rose crept 
between the clean sheets and Donald climbed up above, 
and then Vocalio turned down the lights, settled him- 
self to polishing their shoes and laying out warm 
clothes in readiness for their Arctic trip. He 
hummed a little tune to himself and Donald fancied 
he was singing to the same rhythm that the wheels 
sang: 

‘‘Oh, the wonderful World of the Inside Track! 

A visit we’ll make to Snohailio’s shack. 

We’ll speed to the North where the weather is zero, 

To meet my odd brother who thinks he’s a hero.” 

Then he stopped and went to bed, but the wheels 
began rumblingly — 

“Oh, the wonderful World of the Inside Track ! 

How Glogailio shone with his bright Zodiac ! 

Yet journey we must with a slip and a slide 
Away from the cave where the kangaroos hide.” 


XVIII 

EEADY FOR THE NORTH POLE 

T XAKE up, wake up!” cried Vocalio, and 
%/ %/ the children rubbed their eyes and found 
^ ^ that the car had stopped and that V oca- 

lio was standing in front of them, holding out two 
suits of fur and feathers. 

“Are these for me?” asked Rose, looking doubt- 
fully at the sealskin trousers. “I’ll be bunchier than 
ever, as Glogailio would say, when I get these on.” 

“You’ll be warm anyway,” and Vocalio helped her 
into the jacket that was all lined with feathers. 
“Now, here are sealskin boots for you. Put these on 
first and then pull the trousers over them, and there 
you are all snug and ready; and you, too, Donald. 
Can you manage by yourself? All ashore, then.” 

“But, Vocalio, what about your suit?” asked Rose. 

“Oh, I’m not going with you this trip,” he replied, 
“or only as far as the entrance to the tunnel. I’ve 
sent a wireless to Snohailio to tell him to be sure and 


140 


READY FOR THE NORTH POLE 141 


meet you. I’d perish inside of ten minutes in a cli- 
mate like this. Here, give me a lift with these, will 
you?” and Vocalio produced two large hampers, one 
of which he handed to Donald. 

“What’s in here?” asked Rose. 

“Food for Snohailio and his pets,” Vocalio grunted 
contemptuously. “He’d starve, I guess, if I didn’t 
remember him. I even bring bones for his beasts.” 

“That’s awfully good of you, Vocalio,” said Rose 
appreciatively. “Let me help you carry something, 
too.” 

“Here’s a bag of doughnuts,” said Vocalio, taking 
up another bundle that he had set by him on the 
table. “Snohailio’s very fond of doughnuts. Come 
along now, you really must be off.” And together 
they hurried from the car, Vocalio grumbling heartily 
all the time at the idiocy of a brother who would 
choose such a spot to live in. 


XIX 

SNOW AND HAIL 

A GREAT blast of icy air came rushing down 
the entrance of the tunnel. It set Vocaho’s 
teeth to chattering in his head and made him 
dance with impatience and rage. But the children 
ran out eagerly, well protected as they were against 
the cold; and they laughed in delight at the great, 
still ice-plain and the mounds of snow spread before 
them, at the frosty stars and the gorgeous, sparkling 
crown that the Aurora Boreahs had thrown across the 
sky. 

“The cold wind burns my face and blows 
Its frosty pepper up my nose, — ” 

quoted Rose with a gasp. ‘T never knew what that 
meant, but it is frosty pepper, isn’t it, Donald?” 

Donald nodded. His eyes were shining with de- 
light at the beauty of what he had so often longed to 
see. 

142 


SNOW AND HAIL 


143 


'‘Frosty pepper! I should think it was!” chat- 
tered Vocalio. “Snohailio, old man, where are 
you?” 

“Here,” answered a voice close to them, and from 
out behind a mound of ice waddled the quaintest fig- 
ure. A little man, he was, hke Vocalio, in height, 
complexion and eyes, but unlike in that his hair 
drooped long and yellow and straight around his face, 
and his mouth turned down dolefully at the corners. 
He was wrapped in white fur from head to 
toe. 

“Here we all are, Snohailio,” said Vocalio as well 
as he could speak for the cold. “And now good-by, 
I’m going back to my car. Don’t be long, or every- 
thing will freeze up and you’ll have nothing but ice 
cream the rest of the trip. Here’s some food for you, 
old man,” setting down the hampers. ‘“Boo! How 
cold it is!” and with a hasty wave of his hand Vocalio 
scuttled back to his hole like a frightened rabbit. 

“Funny old chap,” said Snohailio, his mouth turn- 
ing up suddenly into a curious little smile that was 
gone as quickly as it had come. “Always must be do- 
ing something; always rushing here and there like 
a comet through the air, but — well, well, what do we 


144 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


care?” and breaking off abruptly, he turned and shook 
hands gravely with each of the children saying, 
“There’s so much to do, and see, I don’t know where 
our start shall be. But come and try a slide with 
me.” So saying, he gave a little run and started 
sliding away in front of them. 

Donald set down his bag of food and went next and 
Rose brought up the rear. The children slid rapidly 
along down what seemed to be a river of shining 
ice with snow banks high on either side. Rose 
stretched out her hand to touch one and fell on her 
back, finishing her slide the way Snohailio’s letter had 
described, “heels in the air.” 

“But I didn’t mind,” she said, laughing and jump- 
ing to her feet when the others came back to inquire 
about her; “it didn’t hurt a bit. I felt just like a live 
toboggan with this leather suit on.” 

“I’ll show you another game you’ll like,” said Sno- 
hailio. “It’s the way I always go to my cottage. 
There it is, see, at the foot of the hill with a light 
shining out of the door. This is a game I learned 
from the Eskimo kids — they call it rolling snow- 
balls. Watch now, how it’s done.” 

So saying, he folded his arms across his chest, rolled 


SNOW AND HAIL 145 

himself up like a hedgehog, and tumbled over and 
over down the hill. 

“Oh,” laughed Rose, “give me a push, Donald, and 
I’ll do it, too.” So Donald helped to roll her up and 
pushed her off, and she went bumping, tumbling, roll- 
ing down and Donald after her till they found them- 
selves at the foot. 

“They’re more stars than ever in the sky,” said 
Rose, gasping a little and rubbing her eyes. “That’s 
lots, of fun, Mr. Snohailio, and how very much like 
snowballs we do look.” 

“The only trouble is,” said Snohailio, “I can’t carry 
provisions that way. I’d best run back and get those 
we left before any of my family eat them. Have a 
look at the shack. Pretty snug, isn’t it?” 

“It’s a jolly little place,” Donald cried enthusiastic- 
ally. “You’ve made it just like an ice cart, haven’t 
you, Snohailio? Vocalio told us you were awfully 
fond of ice carts.” 

“To be sure,” cried Snohailio, beaming on him, “it 
is an ice cart, the very same one I ran away on when 
I was a boy. I suppose he told you about that, too? 
I thought he would. It’s all fitted up new now, out- 
side and iri; but run in and make yourselves at home. 


146 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


There’s nobody in but Snowdrop. He’s my young- 
est, and he’ll be glad of company. I’ll not be long.” 

So saying, he hurried up the hill again and the 
children turned, mounted the steps of the little ice- 
cart cottage, and pushed up the latch. 


XX 


THE ICE CART COTTAGE 

how cosy it is!” cried Rose delightedly, 
I I “even nicer than our car, though it would 
never do to tell Vocalio so.” 

The inside of the ice-cart cottage consisted of a cosy 
little room, about eight feet long by five feet wide. 
The walls, ceiling and floor were covered with thick 
white fur, and as the children standing in the middle 
could almost touch both the ceiling over their heads and 
the two walls on either side, they felt as though they 
were in a fleece-lined Christmas box, or “the inside of 
some giant’s muff,” as Rose suggested. There were 
no chairs and no bed. “But then, one could sleep 
anywhere here, the carpet is thick as any mattress,” 
said Rose. At the further end was a bench to which 
were fastened an array of china, bronze and wooden 
clocks all ticking merrily away. There were also 
three cups and saucers, three spoons and plates, and 
a large round frosted birthday cake, like a huge 
147 


148 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


snowball with nine white candles, burning brightly. 

“How did he guess it was my birthday?’’ said Don- 
ald. 

“Oh, Vocalio told him, of course,” said Rose. 
“Didn’t you hear him say he’d sent a wireless? Glo- 
gailio’s cake looked like a cave and now this one looks 
like a snowball. What a pretty idea, and with the 
cluster of candles all around the top ; and look, Don- 
ald, at the darling little cook-stove!” 

The stove was screwed tight to the floor and was 
winking one red eye at them cheerily from the comer. 
This and the candles on the birthday cake were the 
only lights in the place. Rose began feeling and look- 
ing along the sides of the cart and presently she lifted 
a corner of the fur that was hanging loose and found 
that the walls were covered with some smooth, shiny 
substance. 

“I never saw so many clocks before,” said Donald. 
“There are nine here on this bench, and I’ve found at 
least seven nailed to the walls. There’s one striking 
now. What does it say?” 

“Six,” said Rose, counting on her fingers. “Oh, 
Donald, we must hurry back or Vocalio will go with- 
out us.” 


THE ICE CART COTTAGE 


149 


“Nonsense, Rose, what are you thinking about! 
It’s exactly quarter of twelve. Listen, there’s an- 
other clock striking now.” They counted the tinkling 
bells which struck eight, then stopped. 

“It’s very puzzling,” said Rose. “I think the cold 
must have got into all their works, but then what 
difference does it make? There isn’t any such thing 
as time when you’re on the Inside Track the way we 
are. Oh, what’s that in the corner?” and Rose gave 
a startled scream. 

“I don’t see anything except the floor,” said Don- 
ald. “What is it?” 

“There!” said Rose, pointing, “See! It has eyes! 
It’s moving! It’s alive! Oh, Donald!” For just 
then from the right hand corner of the room something 
reared itself in the air and began moving towards 
them. When it came nearer Rose cried out in de- 
light, “It’s a baby Polar bear. It must be Snowdrop, 
of course, that Snohailio spoke about. Oh, Donald, 
do you suppose any more of the carpet is alive?” — 
and Rose began lifting her feet gingerly lest she 
should be stepping on a real bear instead of the cov- 
ering of one. 

“I guess not,” said Donald. “Snohailio said there 


150 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


was nobody in but Snowdrop, you remember. Hello, 
old boy,” and Donald gave a pat to the bristly white 
head. 

“Here comes Snohailio,” cried Rose, and Snow- 
drop, hearing the latch click, hurried towards the door. 

“How do you like my snug retreat? with fur at your 
head and fur at your feet, and plenty of goodies and 
doughnuts to eat?” cried Snohailio with one of his 
queer little smiles, walking to the bench and setting 
down his load. 

“Oh, Snohailio, it’s so dear,” cried Rose, “and we 
never saw Snowdrop till just now; we thought he was 
part of the furnishings. But they’re ever so many 
questions I want to ask. Why do the clocks all tell 
different times, and how did you collect so many 
bear skins, and how did you know it was Donald’s 
birthday?” 

“One at a time, one at a time. Shall I answer your 
questions in prose or in rhyme?” queried Snohailio. 

“In prose, please,” said Rose positively, “for I’m 
in such a hurry to know, and rhymes do take such a 
long time to make,” she added apologetically, as 
Snohailio looked quite disappointed. 


THE ICE CART COTTAGE 


151 


‘‘Not for me,” he said eagerly, “I can make rhymes 
as quick as you gay little folks can turn out smiles; 
but there, there, I won’t do it, not if you object; I’ll 
nail myself to the matter in hand and make my replies 
in the prose of the land. First, about the covering 
of my walls? Walrus hide they are outside and in. 
I stretched them over an old ice-cart that was shipped 
here on the Inside Track by Vocalio, of course. 
There’s no wood in these parts. I slept in a snow hut 
several years waiting for all these animals to die. 
Only two of them had to be shot. Fighting Fanny, 
the bear on the ceiling there, and Thomas the Thief, 
bad beyond belief. ( There ! I didn’t mean to rh}ane, 
really.) The rest just dropped off naturally and I 
found them and brought them home.” Snohaiho 
shook his head sadly. 

“I suppose that’s why you wear this?” said Donald, 
touching the black strip of crepe around Snohailio’s 
sleeve. 

“Yes,” Snohailio replied, “a token of respect, and 
I’m seldom without it,” he added with a sigh. “I’ve 
one on either arm now. This is for Birchbark, my 
walrus, and this for Agatha, my seal. I was so fond 


152 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


of her I had her made into a bedspread. There she 
is, rolled up in the corner. Perhaps Snowdrop was 
asleep on her. You rascal, that’s forbidden, you 
know. He doesn’t seem to like the smell of the bear- 
skins — reminds him too much of Mother, I suppose, — 
and always picks out my best sealskin spread to lie 
down on. How’s that for something soft and warm? 
In that I roll myself from head to toe ; and what care 
I for wind, or frost, or snow?” 

‘Tt is soft,” said Rose, sighing happily as she 
rubbed the exquisite seal fur against her cheek. “You 
must get very much attached to your seals, Snohailio.” 

“Indeed, I do,” Snohailio replied, his face lighting 
up. “I’ll show some of them to you later. That’s 
why I like to live up here, you see; the seals are so 
safe. No Eskimos to spear or trap them as long as 
they stay by me, and I make such pets of them that 
they do stay by me.” 

“Of course, they would,” asserted Rose; “but for 
my next question. Tell us about the clocks, Snohailio, 
won’t you?” 

Snohailio gave another quick little smile, threw off 
his outer fur jacket, and sank down cross-legged on 
the floor. 


THE ICE CART COTTAGE 


153 


“Sit down,” he said, and the children willingly made 
little Turks of themselves and squatted beside him. 

“Better take off your furs,” Snohailio said, “and 
we’ll have a good talk. I suppose Vocalio has told 
you something about me,” he began, after they had 
taken his advice and settled themselves comfortably. 

The children nodded. 

“About how queer and crotchety I am and how I 
don’t care for folks at all, only for wild beasts such 
as I have about me here,” — and Snohailio patted 
Snowdrop who had curled up at his feet. 

“Yes.” 

“Well,” Snohailio spoke positively now, with a note 
almost of anger in his voice. “It’s all rubbish! I do 
like folks when they’re worth liking, and I’m espe- 
cially fond of children, for they’re always worth liking 
to my thinking. Now those clocks up there are 
presents to me from little boy and girl friends who 
have visited me at different times. That one at the 
end of the bench I call my China clock.” 

“But,” interrupted Rose, “that isn’t china, it’s 
bronze.” 

“Not so fast, young lady; I’m coming to that,” 
said Snohailio, shaking his finger at her. 


154 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


‘'When I say China clock I don’t mean that it’s 
made of china but that it was given me by a httle 
Chinese girl just about the same age as you — pointed 
eyes and straight black hair, cute as a plate of Nan- 
keen ware. Then that tall old-fashioned clock on the 
wall with the weights hanging down was a present 
from a little girl who lived in Ireland; that one say- 
ing ‘Cuckoo,’ (now, there it goes) came from a Swiss 
boy; and that desk clock all set with jewelry, was given 
me by a daughter of a prince from India. They’re a 
handsome lot,” he added proudly. 

“Yes, but they can’t keep very good time,” said 
Rose. 

“Not keep good time!” Snohailio cried, turning on 
her in surprise, his voice rising to a funny little sqeak, 
“why not?” 

“Why,” said Rose, “they’re all different. One says 
it’s quarter past four, another, twenty minutes to 
ten, and the cuckoo has just struck eight. How can 
they all be right?” 

“Why, don’t you see,” Snohailio said, his face light- 
ing with a smile as he explained the working of his 
treasures, “they don’t tell the time here, of course. 


THE ICE CART COTTAGE 


155 


Who cares what time it is here? WeVe no train to 
catch, but each clock tells the time it is in the country 
where the child lives who made me the present. So 
you see I can always keep in touch with them and 
imagine what they’re doing. Eight o’clock in Japan, 
Sana San is just being put in bed; four o’clock in In- 
dia, Bhima is sitting under a palm tree, fanned by her 
servants; ten in the morning in Ireland, Nora is hard 
at work churning butter. Yes, it’s a splendid way 
to keep in touch with your friends.” 

“You have to be careful not to let any of them run 
down, don’t you?” said Rose. 

“To be sure, I do,” Snohailio replied. “Once my 
South Sea Island clock did run down and I was 
awfully perplexed. I kept putting little Otowo to 
bed at the usual time and I found out afterwards it 
was only four in the afternoon. Finally I had to 
write him and get him to set me straight by sending 
me a wireless message. They’re a lot of company to 
me, these clocks, and a lot of stimulation to the imagi- 
nation,” he added musingly; “they make me think of 
so many different things and people.” 

“I wonder how mother would like it if I tried it with 


156 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


our clocks at home?” Donald suggested. “I’d cer- 
tainly like to keep one at the time it is here, Snohailio, 
so as to make us think of you.” 

“Good,” said Snohailio, smiling. “You mustn’t 
tell Vocalio about these clocks,” he went on, lowering 
his voice, ‘"because he wouldn’t imderstand and would 
only make fun of me. And there’s another thing I 
do that he doesn’t know about. See here — ” he lifted 
up a comer of the mg they were sitting on and dis- 
closed a little trap door in the floor of the cart. Lift- 
ing this, the children peered in and saw a row of bright 
red socks, each bulging with queer shapes looking 
ready to make any Christmas tree gay. 

“Christmas stockings!” cried Rose delightedly. 
“Oh, Snohailio, whom are they for?” 

“For the little Eskimo boys and girls,” he replied, 
smiling at the children’s appreciation. “Guess, now, 
how I get them to them.” 

“With a team of dogs,” suggested Donald. 

“With reindeer, and you play Santa Claus,” cried 
Rose, clapping her hands. 

“No, neither way; neither dogs nor reindeer can 
exist up here, and the journey is too hard even for 


THE ICE CART COTTAGE 157 


me to take. No, I send my best Polar bear along 
every year before Christmas time and he trots down, 
down, till he reaches the settlements. Then he pokes 
his nose in at the huts and growls softly and the little 
ones come out and take a stocking apiece. Last year 
I sent off not less than one hundred stockings and 
they all reached them safely. Periwinkle, — that’s 
his name — and a fine fat bear he is, too. Vocalio 
gives me some of the stuff,” Snohailio went on, 
“candy and bright ribbons and reins and toys, although 
he thinks I use them for my animals to play with — 
I never tell him what they’re really for, or he’d make 
all manner of fun of me. Such a light-headed chap 
as he is,” he added contemptuously. Then to the 
children’s consternation, great round tears welled up 
over his blue eyes and dropped down his fat cheeks, 
and he began to cry. Such a ridiculous, squeaky cry, 
“like a mechanical doll when you poke it,” thought 
Rose. 

“He is like a doll,” she said to herself as she watched 
him. 

Snohailio seemed to read her thoughts, for he turned 
to her, and drying his eyes with one of his fur mittens. 


158 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


said: ‘‘It’s hard to be misunderstood, just because 
one’s mouth turns down at the corners. Everybody 
loves Vocalio the first time they see him, and nobody 
loves me. They give me away, they throw me away, 
they think I’m only fit for mission work or something 
like that, just because my expression happens to be 
unfortunate. I can turn up my mouth at the cor- 
ners,” (here he struggled manfully to do it) “but it 
will always drop down again, there!” And again 
he burst into the absurd squeaking cry and beat his 
fat Httle legs up and down against the fur, “just like 
a jointed doll,” Rose thought again. 

“Don’t, Snohailio, don’t,” she pleaded, patting him 
on the shoulder; “think how many friends you have 
and think of all the children that gave you those 
clocks. There’s one of them striking now. What 
time is that? I mean what child is it that it reminds 
you of?” 

“Estella of Australia, a brown girl; she’s eating 
her dinner now,” said Snohailio, drying his eyes and 
trying to speak cheerfully. “There, that reminds me 
we must cut the birthday cake. It’s very rude of me 
to have forgotten.” 


THE ICE CART COTTAGE 


159 


“What will become of the candles then?” said Rose, 
but by this time the candles had burnt down nearly 
to their sockets. 

“Here’s a searchlight,” said Snohailio, producing 
one from his pocket. “Do you mind the dark? I 
don’t, for I’m used to it. Here, I’ll cut the cake and 
you eat it quickly by the light of the candle, and then 
we’ll go out and watch Aurora.” 

He cut them each a generous slice. The children 
took it in their fingers and found it deliciously soft and 
creamy, “like maple sugar and honey mixed with snow, 
isn’t it, Snohailio?” But Snohailio shook his head wise- 
ly and would not give them the secret of his making. 

“A snow man’s birthday cake,” he said. “Take 
another slice.” 

“It tastes of snow, but we only know it was baked 
by our friend, Snohailio!” said Donald. “How’s that 
for a beginning?” 

Snohailio beamed on him. 

“Good,” he cried, “you’d soon get the habit if I 
could keep you here a bit. There! Out go the 
candles! Now, wrap yourselves up tight again, and 
come out. Here’s the electric lantern!” 


160 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


He helped them down the steps and they found 
their way to the front of the cart. 

“You sit up on the front seat while I call my team 
together,” he said. 

“It’s light enough here, isn’t it?” said Rose as she 
scrambled to her seat and made room for Donald 
beside her. And indeed it was, with the flashing, 
dancing Northern Lights, and the jewel-like stars 
above them. 

“It’s wonderful,” said Donald, drawing a deep 
breath and taking in the beauty of the scene. “I’ve 
always loved the snow the best of anything, but at 
home it melts so quickly.* Think of aU the snow men 
we could make here. Rose, and of all the big snow- 
balls we could roll, and of the toboggan slides we 
could have. How I wish Snohailio would ask me to 
spend the winter,” he cried enthusiastically. 

“I’m afraid I don’t,” said Rose with a little shiver. 
“There isn’t sun enough. Look, Donald, at those big 
white things. Are they snow men that Snohailio has 
made?” 

“They’re on runners, if they are,” laughed Donald. 
“Why, no. Rose, of course not. They’re the one’s 


THE ICE CART COTTAGE 


161 


that are going to pull us. Polar bears, one, two, 
three, four, five, six, seven, eight of them. Aren’t 
they beauties!” 

Snohailio cracked a whip at the bears and drove 
them to the cottage where he harnessed them rapidly 
to the long pole that ran out in front. Then he 
gathered up the reins and climbed to the seat by the 
children. 

“Here we go over the snow, Aurora above and 
the Ice King below,” he laughed, and with a crack 
of his whip the Ice Cart Cottage began to move. 


XXI 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 

D uring their ride over hummocks and 
snow mounds and smooth floors of ice, 
Donald sat looking about him, absorbed by 
the scene, while Rose prattled cheerfully away to 
Snohailio. 

“Which is Periwinkle?” she asked. 

“The leader bear on the right,” Snohailio answered. 
“The one next him is Anemone. They’re mates, and 
those two bears next the cart are their cubs, Daisy and 
Buttercup. Then, there’s Azalea and Dandelion, 
Sweet Pea and Rose,” he added glancing at her. 

“Oh,” cried Rose delightedly, “which one is named 
for me?” 

“That one,” said Snohailio, indicating the third off 
bear with his whip. 

“What a beauty,” cried Rose. “Do you suppose 
she’d let me pat her when I get home?” 

“Rose’s temper isn’t of the best,” Snohailio admitted 
162 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 


163 


reluctantly. “Whoa, now, my pets. WeVe reached 
the seal’s green parlor, so through the ice we’ll peer, 
where down below, set in a row, are the flipper babies 
dear. Give us your lanterns, Donald, my boy, and 
wait till I tie the bears to this pole, and then we’ll 
take a peep.” 

“Is this the North Pole?” asked Rose, fingering the 
huge iron spike that Snohailio had driven deep into 
the ice. 

Snohailio and Donald exchanged glances. 

“The very thing,” Snohailio said, smiling, and this 
time he looked so pleased he really managed to hold 
up the corners of his mouth quite a while; “the very 
thing that Peary and Amimdsen and Nansen have 
been making such a to-do about for ever so long; and 
here you two come and lay your hands on it without 
any trouble. That will be something to tell about 
when you get home, won’t it?” 

“Indeed it will,” said Rose happily, “and oh, I do 
wish I could climb to the top.” 

“Here, I’ll give you a push,” said Snohaiho, and 
he caught her in his arms. 

“Take the ribbon off your hat. Rose, and tie it 
there,” Donald laughingly suggested when Rose had 


164 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


worked her way up, and Rose put her hand to her 
head forgetting that her usual headgear was replaced 
by the Eskimo hood. 

“Never mind, IVe a hair ribbon,” she said, feeling 
underneath, and she knotted the hit of scarlet firmly 
around the top of the pole and then slid down into 
Snohailio’s arms. 

“Hurrah for the Arctic explorer!” cried Donald and 
Snohailio, waving their arms in the air, and all the 
bears took up the cry and growled lustily. Rose did 
not guess what they were so merry about. 

“Now, you look in here,” said Snohailio, and he 
showed them an opening through the snow hke a little 
round window. 

“I’ll go light up for you below,” he cried, and dis- 
appeared behind a snow mound. In a moment there 
was a fiash of light and the children could see into a 
deep cave, where a mother seal was playing with her 
little ones. 

“Oh, the darlings!” cried Rose. “Donald, do see 
that littlest one. Don’t you suppose Snohailio would 
give him to me to keep?” 

Presently they could see Snohailio with his lantern, 
darting about, setting down something on the fioor 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 


165 


of the cave, caressing the mother seal, frisking with 
the babies and peering up at the children now and 
then, to see if they were looking. 

“Yet all the time he looks sad, doesn’t he?” said 
Rose, “and he reminded me of something, especially 
when he cried, but I can’t think what.” 

“I can’t either,” said Donald, “but perhaps we 
shall remember some time. He’s a good little chap. 
It’s funny that he and Vocalio don’t get on better.” 

“Here he comes again,” said Rose, for the cave grew 
dark below them and they saw Snohailio’s lantern 
presently bobbing along. 

“How did you like it? Did you get a good view of 
Elizabeth Brown and her cubs, and could you see the 
motto I had hung in their cave?” 

“No,” said Donald. “What was it?” 

“Guess,” commanded Snohailio. 

“The north wind doth blow, and we shall have 
snow,” suggested Rose. 

“No, no poetry this time,” said Snohailio, shaking 
his head; “just plain, practical prose such as you see 
in eating houses: ‘Watch your overcoat!’ — Show’s 
that?” 

Donald laughed. “They are worth watching, sure 


166 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


enough. But who’s going to steal them away down 
there?” 

Snohailio shook his head with a sigh. “Eskimos, 
if they get a chance,” he replied, “though they know 
they’re not welcome to go trapping or shooting around 
here. I’ve signs up forbidding it. I do my best, it’s 
all I can, to keep the seals apart from man.” 

“Well,” said Rose, “I don’t want to shoot or trap, 
but I do wish you would give me that littlest seal 
to take home, won’t you, Snohailio?” 

“His overcoat would be in too much danger, I’m 
afraid,” Snohailio said; “too much of a temptation 
when you heard how very high sealskin has grown.” 

“Oh, how can you say such a thing?” cried Rose, 
indignantly. “I wouldn’t kill a baby seal for any- 
thing.” 

“Where would you keep it?” asked Donald. 

“Why, in the bath tub,” said Rose, “and it would 
be such fun.” 

“What would you do with it when it grew bigger, 
then?” queried Donald. 

“Daddy would have to build a tank on purpose 
for it,” Rose replied quickly. “Daddy can build any- 
thing! Churches and houses and ponds for us chil- 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 167 

dren to sail our boats. Of course, he could build a 
tank for my pet seal.” 

“Well, well,” Snohailio replied, laughing, “I’ll give 
him to you if I do to anybody. I can’t promise more 
than that.” 

“Were we looking through the ice, Snohailio,” asked 
Donald, “or through a hole in the ice into the seal’s 
parlor?” 

“You were looking through three feet of clear ice,” 
Snohailio explained. “I keep the snow swept away 
on purpose so as to show the parlor to my visitors. 
Very transparent, isn’t it? Like the artificial ice you 
make at home. Come along now, we must be going 
back. I’ll try and make the bears make up time on 
the return trip.” 

He helped the children onto the car and snapped 
his whip, and the portable cottage began to move. At 
first they jogged slowly along; but then the bears, as 
though they had caught the whiff of an enemy behind 
them, started running over the ice, dragging the cot- 
tage at break-neck speed, with many jolts and twists 
and turns. 

“I see now why your clocks were fastened into 
place,” said Rose, her teeth shaking in her head, “and 


168 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


why the stove and bench are nailed to the floor, and 
why you don’t want chairs and tables. Oh, Snohaiho, 
aren’t we nearly back?” 

“Slow down, my beauties,” said Snohailio, pulling 
at the reins. “This young lady wants to look about 
a bit, and sure enough, here we are going right past 
old Pine Cone and Lichen without so much as saying 
good evening. I’ve got bones about me somewhere — ” 
and Snohailio thrust his hands into his pockets. 

“Pine Cone and Lichen,” said Rose wonderingly, 
“who are they?” 

Snohailio pointed to the two dark forms that were 
lumbering slowly towards them over the ice. 

“Walruses,” cried Donald, delightedly. “That’s 
what your cottage is covered with, isn’t it?” 

“Yes,” nodded Snohailio, “with the hide of six of 
my trusty friends. Birchbark was the last to leave; 
him I’m in mourning for,” touching the band of crepe 
on his right arm. “See that off walrus,” he pointed, 
“he owes his life to me. I found him on the rocks 
out there, one tusk grown longer than the other. It 
often happens with wild animals, you know. The 
poor creature couldn’t get any food between his teeth, 
so he was starving to death. I sawed it off and bound 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 


169 


it round with a diamond ring — can you see the solitaire 
glittering away there in his mouth?” 

Rose and Donald looked carefully and finally 
caught the flash of a diamond on the ugly tusk of 
the walrus. 

“Wouldn’t anything else have done?” asked Rose. 
“It seems a pity to waste a diamond that way.” 

“Waste it!” cried Snohailio. “Why, what better 
use can you put it to? I call it wasting diamonds to 
put them where they don’t do any good, on fingers 
and ears and necks and arms, that get along just as 
well without them. Now, old Pine Cone couldn’t get 
along without his, so I gave it to him, of course.” 

“I like the names you’ve given your hears and wal- 
ruses,” said Rose, changing the subject, as she saw 
that she and Snohailio were not likely to agree about 
it. 

“Do you?” he asked, smiling at her, then dropping 
back into sadness. “Yes, I was very fond of flowers 
and trees when I was a boy and I wanted them to 
see I had not forgotten them; Anemone and Snow- 
drop, Cowslip and Buttercup — how I used to hunt for 
them in the springtime. Oh, dear!” 

“Don’t cry,” said Rose in despair as the tears began 


170 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


to well up in his eyes, and the peculiar squeak to begin 
inside him. 

“Don’t stop me, now!” cried Snohailio in real dis- 
may, and then the tears gushed over onto his cheeks 
and he gave a smile and a gasp of relief. 

“Nearly froze in my eyes again,” he said. “I had 
a hard experience one day. Tears rose to my eyes, 
stood there, froze before I could get them out, and 
there I was alone, walking by myself, couldn’t thaw 
them out till I got home again. Couldn’t shut my 
eyes all that time. It was awful, awful. I don’t 
think they’ve been quite the same since.” 

“That must be why they look so large and starey,” 
thought Rose to herself. 

The team was moving slowly on now, and Pine 
Cone and Lichen had dragged themselves away. 

“They’re more like lichens the way they cling to 
the rocks than they are like pine cones,” said Donald. 

“Yes, hut I wanted to remember the pine tree, too,” 
said Snohailio. “It was a great pet of mine. Oh, 
dear, oh dear, talk about something cheerful, or I shall 
cry again.” 

“I tell you what I’ll talk about,” said Rose, clap- 
ping her hands, “and it’s the most cheerful thing there 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 171 

is. It’s Christmas! And do you know it’s nearly 
here?” 

“No,” cried Snohaiho in astonishment. 

“It is, though,” said Rose. “Donald, what day was 
yesterday? No, day before, the day we went with 
Mother to New York, I mean. I’m so puzzled about 
time since I came on the Inside Track. It was only 
a few days before Christmas anyway, and I should 
think, Snohailio, it must be time for you to saddle up 
Periwinkle and send him down to the Eskimo chil- 
dren. Couldn’t Donald and I do that for you now, as 
soon as ever we get home again?” 

“Why, yes, you could help me lots if you would,” 
cried Snohailio, brightening. “We’re home, you 
know, any time we want to stop ; that’s the advantage 
of having a traveling house, and we’re near the en- 
trance to your car, so, whoa, my beauties,” (pulling 
up the bears) “let us go inside. But first, would you 
like to see them do a few tricks?” 

“Indeed we would.” 

“They can play nine pins or button, button, who’s 
got the button. I think they do the button game 
best. Have either of you something they can hide?” 

Donald thrust his hand into his pocket and drew 


172 ALi: ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

out the silver half dollar with Rose’s head on it that 
Glogailio had minted for them. 

“I’ll get it back, won’t I?” he asked, “for we want 
it for a keepsake.” 

“Yes, yes,” said Snohailio, nodding at him. Then 
he unharnessed the bears and motioned them to take 
their places in a row in front of where the children 
were standing and whistled Periwinkle to come for- 
ward. He bound his eyes with a silk scarf and then 
gave the half dollar to the end bear and they began 
passing it up and down the line with their huge paws. 

“Stop!” cried Snohailio, and at the same time he 
pulled the handkerchief off of Periwinkle’s forehead. 
Periwinkle began moving up and down the line, and 
finally touched the bear second from the end. Dan- 
delion it was, and sure enough, there was the coin 
stuck between his toes. Then Dandelion’s eyes had 
to be bandaged and he took his turn at guessing. 
Everything went well till the coin was found on Rose 
and she was so cross about it. She tried to pick a 
quarrel with the bear who had touched her and the 
two began biting and snarling at each other so that 
Snohailio broke the line and sent off all the bears but 
three in some disgust. 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 


173 


‘‘Here’s your coin, Donald,” he said, tossing it to 
him. “Really, that Rose is as poor tempered a brute 
as ever I saw. Sorry she happens to have your sis- 
ter’s name. I guess I’ll have to turn her into a new 
carpet if she doesn’t control herself. Now come, we’ll 
have a ride on a bear’s back ! That will be something 
fine to tell your mother about, won’t it?” 

“Yes, indeed,” cried Rose. “We’ve ridden on an 
elephant in India, and on a kangaroo’s tail in a cave, 
and now on a Polar bear up at the North Pole ! How 
exciting!” 

But Snohailio had not heard her remarks as he was 
busying himself running up the steps of the cottage 
from which he presently returned carrying a huge 
talking machine that he set on the roof of the cart, 
and a bundle of bright red bags. To the children’s 
astonishment he commenced tying the latter over the 
great feet of the bears, like huge bedroom slippers. 

“What is that for?” asked Rose. “I didn’t know 
bears had cold feet.” 

“Not cold, but too hot sometimes,” Snohailio ex- 
plained. “You see, they slide so very, very fast their 
feet sometimes stick to the ice and have to be thawed 
out with hot water, so I thought of this way of doing. 


174 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


I’ll ride Periwinkle, you, Rose, get on Anemone, hold 
tight to her fur, she doesn’t mind; and you, Donald, 
take Dandelion by the collar. Now, wait till I start 
the phonograph, — ” and he scrambled off Periwinkle’s 
back and ran to the cart again, where he wound up 
the machine, with a buzz and a whirr, set it playing 
a dignified march. 

“Oh, my beauties, round we’ll go, not too fast and 
not too slow; softly, gently, so, so, so!” 

At this he produced a flash-light from his pocket 
and, throwing the yellow glow ahead of him, the 
children saw a circle of ice surrounding the cottage. 
Hurdles were set at intervals and the three bears 
with their riders began to vault nimbly as they ran 
along the track. 

“How funny we look,” thought Rose as she glanced 
about her. “There’s Snohailio flashing that light like 
a big firefly, and the bears going on and on, like sheep 
that we count when we’re trying to go to sleep. I 
mustn’t go to sleep now, though, or I’d roll off of 
Anemone’s back. Hark, the music’s playing faster!” 

Just then the phonograph brightened its tune to 
the most rollicking of marches and Snohailio, riding 
on Periwinkle, knocked the hurdles to one side, and 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 


175 


started the great bear galloping fiercely around the 
circle of ice. The children’s bears quickened their 
paces, too, till they were flying at breakneck speed, 
when they dropped into a slide that carried them 
spinning round and round, until they gradually 
slowed down, the music growing slower and fainter, 
and finally dying away altogether as they came to a 
stand. 

“That was fun,” said Donald, rubbing his eyes. 

“I felt all of a whirl,” said Rose, climbing off her 
bear’s back and tumbling down as she did so. 

Snohailio helped her up again and clapped his hands 
at Anemone and Dandelion who scampered off over 
the ice, leaving Periwinkle sniffing anxiously after 
them. 

“You stay with us, old fellow,” said Snohailio, hold- 
ing him by the collar. “Good old bear, you’ll take 
care to give each Eskimo his share. Run in, Donald, 
will you, and fetch his saddle. You’ll find it hanging 
on the wall at this end, over Agatha’s mantle, re- 
member?” 

“Oh, yes,” said Donald, and he hurried off, return- 
ing in a moment carrying a red harness covered with 
little balls. They drew this over Periwinkle’s head 


176 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


and neck. It fitted closely all along his back and 
had hooks on it to hang the scarlet stockings from. 
Donald and Rose fetched these from under the trap 
door and laid them across his back, strapping them 
tightly down, while some hung from the saddle along 
his sides, nearly touching the ground. Then they 
gave him a good meal of cold fish and a long drink 
of water. Snohailio pointed to the south and said: 
“Run along, old boy, a happy journey to you! And 
if you should meet with pleasant company on the 
return, bring ’em along, bring ’em along.” 

“Isn’t he good!” said Rose, watching the big bear 
trotting obediently away, bells jingling and stockings 
dancing. “He’s the j oiliest old Santa Claus I ever 
saw, isn’t he, Donald?” 

“Yes,” Donald replied. Then he looked up into 
the sky. “The Christmas bear,” he said thoughtfully. 
“There’s a bear up there at Christmas time, isn’t 
there?” 

“Yes,” said Snohailio, nodding, “and now there’s 
a bear down below. A Christmas bear, furry and 
white, running away with all his might, to bring the 
little folks delight.” 

“Now, come in. I’ve a souvenir of the trip for each 



"Dressing Periwinkle" 


177 











178 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


of you, and a few words I want to say, for I like 
you both very much indeed. I haven’t cried half as 
much as usual since you were here.” 

“I should think you would cry, living all alone as 
you do,” Rose said with a shiver. “Of course, you’ve 
a lovely home and lots of nice pets, and it’s fine of 
you to plan good times for the little Eskimo children, 
but still, don’t you ever want to live right with other 
people, or where it’s warm, and you can see the flowers 
again, and the trees that you were so fond of, and 
feel the sand all hot when you run over it with your 
bare feet, instead of just ice and snow as it is here?” 

“No, no,” screamed Snohailio, “don’t talk of such a 
thing! Hot sun, indeed, and burning sand under my 
bare feet! How do you suppose I could stand such 
a climate as that? I’d melt away under it, that’s 
what I’d do. My life is in the snow and cold, where 
screaming winds the plains enfold, and icebergs glim- 
mer green and gold. It’s all very well for Vocalio to 
trot about as he does, but the roving life is not for 
me. I’ll stay at home in the Polar Sea, ice-locked 
in safe captivity. I’m surprised you shouldn’t appre- 
ciate how beautiful it is !” he said, turning to Rose. 

“I do, anyway,” said Donald, “and I declare I 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 


179 


envy you living in this glorious climate and with that 
fine family of bears growing up about you. They’re 
good enough to show at the circus, they are, indeed. 
It seems a pity you shouldn’t take them there. Think 
what a sensation that hurdle would make! The chil- 
dren would all want to sit in the front row, hoping 
to get a ride on the bear’s back, wouldn’t they. Rose?” 

“How do you think my bears would stand it?” 
Snohailio broke in, “used as they are to living out 
here under the frosty stars, their only light Aurora 
bright who flashes gaily through the night. No, no, 
we’re best off where we are having the children come 
to see us. At least, having those who appreciate it,” 
he added, turning rather severely to Rose. 

“Oh, I do appreciate it, Snohailio,” she said, “only, 
only I like other places, too.” 

“I think perhaps Rose feels the cold a bit more 
than I do,” said Donald apologetically, “and perhaps 
she’s homesick and she thinks it strange you don’t 
want to go home again.” 

“Why, this is home,” said Snohailio, “and besides, 
it’s a narrow feeling to care so much about your own 
home. Why can’t you begin to care about the other 
fellow’s home, and then it will grow to be like your 


180 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


own home, you see. Now, I always try to think of 
the other fellow, whatever I’m doing. Think of the 
other fellow’s joys, not your own, think of the other 
fellow’s sorrows, not your own. My clocks strike. 
Do I think about my time? No, indeed. I haven’t 
the slightest idea what time it is here, don’t even 
want to know, I’m thinking about the other fellow. 
And it’s just the same when I’m cooking my dinner. 
I’m not thinking about my dinner at all, I’m thinking 
about the other fellow’s dinner.” 

“Don’t you sometimes burn your own dinner, if 
you’re thinking about the other person’s?” asked Rose. 

“Yes, often,” Snohailio rephed, “but then what 
does it matter? Because when I’m eating my dinner 
I’m thinking about the other person’s, so I don’t taste 
the bum on mine. I taste the delicious flavor of 
his.” 

“Well,” persisted Rose, “suppose the other person 
who had cooked his dinner carefully, should be think- 
ing about yours while he ate his own; he’d get your 
burned flavor, and he’d be awfully sorry you hadn’t 
taken more pains.” 

“I never thought of that,” Snohailio said thought- 
fully, “that would be hard for him. I’ll try and cook 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 


181 


more carefully on his account. And now I suppose 
I mustn’t keep you any longer, or Vocalio will get 
too impatient and won’t bring you again. But, see 
here. I want to give you each an ice toy to take 
with you. I keep them here in my preserve closet, 
as I call it.” He drew away the fur from the furthest 
comer and disclosed a triangular cupboard opening, 
with two tiny folding doors. He held the lantern 
up to this, and the children gave a cry of delight, 
for there were twenty or more animals, not over an 
inch high, perfectly molded and with colored eyes 
twinkhng like jewels in the light. 

‘Tee shapes,” Snohailio explained, “colored with 
syrups and poured into molds. Good to eat, too, but 
they only make a mouthful. Take your choice and 
let Vocalio set them in his patent ice chest on the way 
back.” 

“Aren’t they darlings?” said Rose. “I want this 
brown rabbit with pink eyes and a white tail and a 
ribbon with a ball on it aroimd his neck.” 

“I’ll take this chocolate seal,” said Donald. “It will 
remind me always of our visit here and our glimpse 
under the ice into the seal’s parlor.” 

Snohailio set the ice animals in a little tin box for 


182 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 

the children, and then the sound of Vocalio calling 
came faintly to them and reminded them that they 
must hurry off. 

“Pull your hoods down tight and come along,” said 
Snohailio. “My, but I’ll miss you!” he added sud- 
denly, squeezing a hand of each. 

They found Vocalio with a huge megaphone at his 
mouth screaming himself red in the face. 

“What’s your hurry, old man?” asked Snohailio as 
they approached. 

“Hurry!” cried Vocalio. “Well, I should think 
there was hm*ry! Haven’t you kept me kicking my 
heels in that car two mortal hours while you enjoyed 
yourselves up here?” 

“Why didn’t you come, too?” inquired Rose inno- 
cently. 

“Me!” screamed Vocalio. “I’d crack to pieces in 
less than half an hour in such cold. Come, I’m nearly 
frozen now. Hurry aboard, hurry aboard.” 

“Where have you come from?” asked Snohailio, as 
Vocalio, cutting short their good-bys, began dragging 
them into the opening. 

“From the Cave,” Vocalio called back. 

“Oh, same old place!” Snohailio called tauntingly. 


A WHITE SANTA CLAUS 


183 


“Before that you went to India, I suppose. Which 
of you fell into the crocodile pool?” 

“I did,” Donald called back. “How did you 
know?” 

“Ho, ho, ho, Vocalio, he never can think of a new 
place to go!” called Snohailio after them. 

“Good-by, good-by,” cried Donald and Rose. “We 
won’t forget you, and we’ll come back soon.” 

“All right, all right,” Snohailio called to them. 
“You weren’t scared in the cave, were you? No, I 
thought not. It was all a lark, though it was in the 
dark; and now you have only one more run to make 
before you will find you are safely — ” 

But here Vocalio pushed them in front of him, ex- 
claiming angrily: 

“Climb aboard, climb aboard. Plumbing’ll freeze, 
food and drink’ll freeze and break the cups. Let’s 
get out of this at once!” 

So they had to finish Snohailio’s sentence for them- 
selves. 


XXII 

GOOD-BY TO WONDERLAND 

‘ ‘ Y SUPPOSE we’re nearly at home again,” said 
I Rose a few minutes later when their train 
^ was once more humming along. “Remem- 
ber what you said, Vocalio? We’d be back before 
we could say Jack Robinson. Oh, Donald, what fun 
it has been!” 

“Glad to hear you say so,” said Vocalio, and he 
motioned them to make room for him to sit between 
them. Then he took a hand of each and looked quite 
like Snohailio with the corners of his mouth drooping 
and something very like tears shining out from his 
eyes. After a minute he shook himself briskly and 
laughed a cheery Vocalio laugh, saying: 

“It has been fun, hasn’t it? I never had such a 
good time on any trip I made before, never! There 
are only just two of you! Those other children may 
look like you, but they aren’t you. There’s only one 
Donald and Rose in the whole world, outside or in!” 

184 


GOOD-BY TO WONDERLAND 185 


After a minute he pulled out his watch and went 
on, talking nervously and fast; 

“We’re nearly there, and just on time, too ! Now, if 
you’ll shut your eyes for one minute. I’ll be very much 
obhged.” (“I hate to frighten them, but it’s high 
time they were back” they heard him whisper to him- 
self as he slipped off the seat between them.) Donald 
and Rose did as they were bid, and no sooner had 
their eyes closed than a great drowsiness fell upon 
them, and once more the wheels took up the famihar 
refrain: 

^‘Oh, the wonderful world of the Inside Track ! 

We have been a long way and we’re now going back. 

On, swift through the darkness a flash and a scream ! 

So ends the adventure — Awake from your dream.” 

The voice of the wheels grew fainter and fainter 
and finally stopped with a squeak. The children, 
opened their eyes. Everything was black about them 
but through the glass window at the end of their 
car they could see the two lines of the Inside Track 
running like two silvery bars into the darkness. Vo- 
calio was gone. They groped about in search of him, 
and found to their dismay that the soft cushioned 
seats of their car had changed to some hard shiny 


186 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


substance, and the floor had dropped so far below 
them that Rose was afraid to set her foot down though 
she felt vaguely that Vocalio might be hiding there. 

“Donald,” she whispered, “I’m sure he fell onto 
the floor, he never would have left us here like this! 
What shall we do?” 

“The verse told us that the adventure was ended,” 
Donald said; “I don’t remember what came next. 
Perhaps we’re nearer New York than we think. 
Listen, isn’t that Vocalio calling? Listen.” 

They listened breathless, then far away they heard 
Vocalio’s voice calling, “Express! Express!” 

A moment passed. Then out of the darkness 
flashed the headlight of another car bearing down 
upon them at full speed, with Vocaho standing on 
the front platform and waving to them frantically 
with a red flag, while he shouted over and over, “Ex- 
press! Express!” 

“Oh, help, help,” cried Rose, trying vainly to stag- 
ger to her feet. “If we could get to the end of the 
car we could jump off,” she thought to herself. 

“Help, help,” shouted Donald loudly, but neither he 
nor Rose could stir. Then came a wild scream from 
Vocalio and a blinding flash from the oncoming car. 


GOOD-BY TO WONDERLAND 18 T 

J ust as it was about to crash into them they felt some- 
thing clutch them by the shoulders. 

‘‘Help, help!” they cried again. 

“Help, help, of course I’ll help you into your 
things,” laughed their father shaking them gently and 
getting them upon their feet. “Whatever have you 
been dreaming about?” 

The children stared and rubbed their eyes. There 
they were, back on the wicker sofa in the waiting 
room, and the train man who had just finished calling 
the Washington express was walking away, giving 
a curious glance in their direction. 

“First I called you,” their father went on, “and 
then I thought I’d see if this would wake you” (flash- 
ing an electric firefly into their bewildered eyes and 
squeaking Rose’s doll in his other hand) , “and then, 
I just grabbed you both!” 

“It was lucky you did,” said Donald gravely, “the 
car would have crashed into us in another minute.” 

“Well, our car will crash out of the station in an- 
other minute,” said their father laughing, “we’d best 
be getting aboard.” 

“Yes, yes,” echoed their mother, running up to them 


188 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


from the telephone booth. (Had she been there all 
the time? the children wondered). “Yes, do hurry, 
we haven’t a minute to spare !” 

This sounded so hke Vocalio, Rose didn’t know 
whether to laugh or cry, but she hugged her doll very 
tight. Her father caught her in his arms while her 
mother seized Donald by the hand and together they 
hurried into the Rotunda, that looked so common- 
place to the children with no funny little Vocalio run- 
ning up and down, only a sober crowd of people, 
jostling each other on their way to their different 
trains. 

Her father set Rose in the front seat of the car and 
then turned back to help her mother and Donald 
aboard. Donald was carefully carrying his ship. 

“And I have your watch in my pocket, Don,” said 
their father, taking it out. “Keeps good time, too. 
Just five-fifty, and we’re off already! Close connec- 
tion again, I should say!” And he and Mrs. Merton 
shpped into the seat behind the children. 

“Do you mind it, dear?” she asked, leaning forward 
to Rose as the train plunged down on its way under 
the river. 

“Oh, no,” said Rose, and as she nestled up against 


GOOD-BY TO WONDERLAND 189 


Donald’s shoulder she whispered, “This isn’t anything 
after what we’ve been through, is it?” 

“No, indeed,” he answered, smiling down at her. 

“It’s the loveliest thing, the way that boy’s begin- 
ning to take care of his sister,” their mother said as 
she watched them. “I suppose they’re talking over 
the wonders of their day,” — and indeed, they were, but 
not the wonders which the grownups knew about. 

“What’s his name. Rose?” Donald asked abruptly, 
holding up the doll. 

“Vocalio,” she answered promptly. 

“You were there all the time, weren’t you?” he 
said, looking at her wonderingly. “Curious for two 
children to dream just the same thing.” 

“Oh, we didn’t dream it!” cried Rose confidently. 
“Only the last frightening part about Vocalio running 
into us with another car. You never would have done 
that, would you?” She hugged her doll. “But we 
really were at those queer places, Donald, and 
Mother’s been watching those other children all the 
time, — I’ll ask her.” 

“Don’t 1” said Donald. “Let’s keep it to ourselves 
to-night, every bit of it, and think it over. It was 
curious and strange and jolly good fun. You old 


190 ALL ABOARD FOR WONDERLAND 


rascal/’ seizing the doll, never would answer 

my questions, would you?” And Donald stared 
straight into the wide blue eyes. Did they twinkle 
back at him, or was it only the lights of the car re- 
flected in them? 

“You’ll take us there again some day, won’t you, 
Vocalio?” said Rose, taking the doll from Donald’s 
hands and hugging him tight. Vocalio gave a gentle 
squeak. 

“There!” cried Rose triumphantly, “he says he will! 
Now you’ll believe him, Donald, won’t you?” 

But Donald and Vocalio eyed each other in silence. 

“Hedging as usual when we ask you questions,” 
said Donald, “you old Sphinx, you!” 


THE END 


» • 


» I 




- f ^ i 

.. • .. \ I- ^ / 


' * y '' ■«- ’ •. It 

\< \-\ f’ *1 .■ . v'*.'- '»< 'v 




f 

■ y '.► 


■/ 


. 4 '' 




s: 




S • ^ I 


• J 


> ' ' W 









.•i 






m:M • 


X 'ri r,' '<r* * 


•'•4- ' -. 





Vj:,A,-. - .• 




f ‘ tV 




). 


V •> ■ '■ ^ 

'■' '■ . ':'. a'' ' 


\ 


M ■ J 

t 


■ \ ■ 

s 


y ' 


/ 


. i^\ 

, y ■ r 
* ' } ■ > 




\j 


► , ' 




• • • < 


^1... 


.< '/ 


* >. 


^ /.*• 


■s 


, r /. 

i' f ' •'■ 

’ •• f> • • > . * •%, 


' i 


\ i' 




V 

<! 


y J , 


* i' 


' .•; C'ft 






, ; *‘ •^' \ . - ■ • . 




' ,' •' ^ 

t ■ 

i'r 


■^Xa 


'.-■t 


i •' 


i 


r > 


• \,n 


y 







>v?j 

>v 


; ■ :^i 


f, 

*y 


M 






V ;. 

i 


f- 


VS 


' »( 


* c 


■ .'] 


I •! 


•n 


■ /' 

• t. 




.1 < 


.4 




. • ' ■• ■•1 
»• 


. ->J 




V. 




■♦’ V^- ■ 


■ ' ^ ■ ; . ■ ■ ■ 

. ' 'r ' •# ^ ^ A.' o ■'' I ■ »,. 'i ' ‘ jr, nffJlr’ .^tfZvwHmTjSKUflrKdFV 





'It "" ” ■'" • ■ 

KVTf-';' 

* tk*t*i I ' 


if, '! ' '“ ’ 

I. < .i * I ,'fr , 

•>. / •’ 

« ■, 

' ' • * 1 



VJ-’*' '1.^ 

i- •^ .V 


, , ^ / Tm*' ;• 


r ‘--{ ■ . ;.■ ■ ■ 

'-vv-o' 


:***,* ' ' 




r;. ■ . • •- . ■■». '' /i 

; ; • V ' ^ X . v'* * 


f ■• 


■•'A*://' 


. / 


V. v: . V • 


> I 


'V -v ■‘"■‘.V/iF'W 
• .', /'•• , ' . \'V' ■,^'-^,jt-'<■*’‘/\'^^ 





* <■ 


'••, ./ ■•', -si ir ^ • 


*.» 




-.rf - 1^^‘. . . • .' ■ '"■ • ■ " 


. VA ;• ••-/ ; ;r ‘ 


N* '■ /• •••/ : -.'r 
. V **.<L i'l 

"Vt v; 


• ' ,>, 


t ' 

' ) A 


1 ’ ^ 
*• 



, ' t 

•i:» 

1 ^ 

• ' V , 


' • / '•/. 
' •• • • • ' • i • W 

r \ r. I-';''', 


a 





■ ' •, \ ^ .V. * ■'- . ‘•^ Vx* V ' * ^’ ‘ i ’ *c 

• ,>■ ■' ^'' "V‘Vvf ■ ■■ 

■ ' ^ . 'AfII 

^ \ ^ '‘v* ^aS;. .V 

■ ft. -' ' 'I 


• ' *‘ -■ ■ 
\.v '' 



4 • ■ 'I ^ 

■V c. ■ 

'' ^ ■ 

■*'* ■ - ■T*^'^’' ^ .V, '■ 




V ’ 


V A^ ' '^'A-rtA )!.■;' A .;a ' 

'■ '■ ■ •■ ■ ■' ■ .' ■'^v.A J.JMAAUA' 


A'^^^is^xyA . 

TvA'-.^'-w'.:' ' . .• * 

-V '/Ai-S^' ■ ■• ■ 

\ ^ 4* * * • ^ . « 

'. .^^. '•• Al ’ ■ . '■' 

A ••. . A >, ‘. ,• a‘"' ■>> ; 
•. .. • . •.< ‘ ., . • r.-.\: •■ ■ A A.- 


L^viA';.-AV’^A Ay ^ 


s 

ff. ; ('iJtksMj-s 


' • • ;',..'A. '-.-.is 


*0 


V ‘ ' 







i \ 


1 





1 




: /f>-: r/ 





■ I 






• ' t> 

' L V V.* 


/ 


• '/-I ‘i/ 

j . • 



:^T "■ 

v,.>; 5 i 

t • • ’ I 


^ V'** 

’. i'-* 


« ' 


t - • V ’ .AfF^’^V' ‘•jWM 

''s-i ‘ ;. ;S 




A ;■ ■• a'M'V' ...A 

■' '. -A*' {--a' 

•'* \ I ** 

.. .''v 


«• • 




J 



i' 

' • -■ /x; 
1 * * »* . 



. \ 


I •<■ 


» ' I 


V, 


. • 


'■■ .* • - *• ’•^’‘•'14 

•• ’ Wu 

■•f • •■' 

V • « ’ \ ■*' w 

• • *'j1 


» ■ ! 





I 




' r 


v; 




$ I 


\ f 


,4 






I • 


» • 


\ 


H 


> w •■* 


U.‘ 


s- 


» • 


r. 


mM 

■ -v#™ 

A'™ • 



V. 



* • 


::r 


/ ' 


i' ''V' W< -. . ‘ •' 

■ ■;;U;. .A ■ ■;;*■■' , 

.Mi ' 


Ik I 


• ^V- 






^■’ < 


*if' •iM-.* ;, 
’>* u 




■ /: /, 


s . ^ 




/ j 


:f 


. V 

I • 



»* 




• /' 


t 


< 


• J # 



^ • 


'' i’*'i • - 

\ ^Xi « i ' ' ' 



XI’ 


• N 


' • .• 



-‘ -‘5. 


• f 





r^j f : 


/V r r .. F r , 

'j* 

!•• -X^, ?,'■ ■' 

. « / r . 4 




I t 



its 




^■. > 


V/ 


i, ,- 


' / * :ri .• V *\ k' •• 

■< , ‘Mv.w;:v 

. ..' : * 'fr ■. 



iM 





